Polyrhachis cracenta

Like most Hagiomyrma species, this species is a ground-nesting species, apparently preferring the bases of trees as nesting sites (‘nest at base of small sapling’ [G.F. Hill]; ‘extensive diggings all round small paperbarks’ [B.B. Lowery]).

Polyrhachis cracenta is one of several Polyrhachis species which were originally collected at Townsville and other north Queensland localities by F.P. Dodd and other early collectors and were subsequently located in the Northern Territory (i.e. Polyrhachis lysistrata, Polyrhachis prometheus and Polyrhachis incerta (= ‘P. micans ops rufa’ Crawley).

Identification
Polyrhachis cracenta is very similar to Polyrhachis crawleyi but is easily separated by its consistently larger size (HL 1.93-2.12 in P. cracenta versus 1.66-1.84 in P. crawleyi) and its unique superficially glabrous appearance. It is evidently a rare species that has been collected only on a few occasions. Specimens collected by Mjöberg near Laura on Cape York Peninsula, were erroneously identified by Forel (1915) as [[Polyrhachis ammonoeides Roger and as a result, he described a closely similar species, P. crawleyi, as a variety of P. ammonoeides.

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Australasian Region: Australia.

Nomenclature

 *  cracenta. Polyrhachis (Hagiomyrma) cracenta Kohout, 2013: 517, figs. 3C-D (w.q.) AUSTRALIA.

Type Material


Polyrhachis cracenta was listed as P. ‘Hagio 03’ by Kohout (2000: 199).