Myrmecia elegans

Identification
Heterick (2009) - Western Australian specimens of Myrmecia elegans are very difficult to separate from Myrmecia occidentalis, and I am unable to follow Ogata and Taylor (1991) wholly in their diagnosis of the species. The mandibles are often quite dark in colour, but can also be light yellow (they are light-coloured in M. occidentalis). The mesosoma varies from uniformly red or orange to bicoloured dark red and black, similar to M. occidentalis. The yellowish pubescence on the clypeus, as well as the shorter antennal scape, seem to be the surest guides to M. elegans, and, at least in local workers, the individual mandibular teeth tend to be slanted posteriad in M. elegans but are mostly evenly triangular in M. occidentalis.

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Australasian Region: Australia.

Nomenclature

 * . Promyrmecia elegans Clark, 1943: 122, pl. 14, figs. 44, 45 (w.q.) AUSTRALIA (Western Australia).
 * Type-material: syntype workers, syntype queens (numbers not stated).
 * Type-localities: Australia: Western Australia, Hovea (J. Clark), Western Australia, Mt Dale (J. Clark), Western Australia, Mundaring (J. Clark).
 * Type-depository: MVMA.
 * Wheeler, G.C. & Wheeler, J. 1971d: 248 (l.).
 * Combination in Myrmecia: Brown, 1953j: 15.
 * Status as species: Clark, 1951: 222 (redescription); Taylor & Brown, 1985: 8; Taylor, 1987a: 42; Ogata, 1991a: 361; Ogata & Taylor, 1991: 1641 (in key); Bolton, 1995b: 271; Heterick, 2009: 123.
 * Distribution: Australia.

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

 * Heterick B. E. 2009. A guide to the ants of south-western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 76: 1-206.
 * Taylor R. W. 1987. A checklist of the ants of Australia, New Caledonia and New Zealand (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization) Division of Entomology Report 41: 1-92.