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Field identification, biology, and other neat things about members of the genus.

Pictures:



Worker of A. barbigula from South Australia.



Worker of A. longiceps from Australia.



Identification
Antennae are 12 segmented (including the scape) with a 4 segmented club. In side view the propodeum is depressed below the level of the pronotum and forward (anterior) section of the mesonotum, these two regions being connected by the steeply sloping rear (posterior) section of the mesonotum. All workers from a nest are approximately the same size (monomorphic).

Aphaenogaster is most often confused with Pheidole or possibly Pheidologeton. They can be separated from Pheidole by the 4 segmented rather than 3 segmented club and larger body size (over 3.4mm long), and from Pheidologeton by the 12 segmented antennae (they are 11 segmented in Pheidologeton). Additionally, both Pheidole and Pheidologeton have major and minor workers (Pheidole is dimorphic, Pheidologeton polymorphic) while Aphaenogaster has only a single worker caste (is monomorphic).

The Australian species of Aphaenogaster show differences which are little more than variation on a theme. This is in contrast to the nearby Papua New Guinea fauna where morphological variation is considerable. This difference suggests that the Australian fauna is composed of closely related species while that of PNG consists of several more distantly related lineages.

Distribution and Habitats
Australian distribution



Regional Species Lists

 * Australia
 * Papua New Guinea

Keys to Species

 * Australia

Nomenclature
Aphaenogaster Mayr, 1853. Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Ameisen. Verhandlungen der Zoologisch-Botanischen Vereins in Wien. 3 : 101–114 (p. 107).
 * Type-species: Aphaenogaster sardoa, by subsequent designation of Bingham, 1903: 270.


 * Aphaenogaster junior synonym of Atta: Mayr, 1863: 395.

etc.