Monomorium hospitum

Known from the type material, consisting of queens and males collected from a nest of Monomorium floricola in Singapore.

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Indo-Australian Region: Singapore.

Nomenclature

 *  hospitum. Monomorium (Corynomyrmex) hospitum Viehmeyer, 1916a: 133 (q.m.) SINGAPORE. See also: Bolton, 1987: 299.

Bolton (1987) - Viehmeyer erected a separate subgenus of Monomorium, Corynomyrmex, for a single species (hospitum) based on a series of 4 females and 2 males taken from a nest of the common tramp species Monomorium floricola, in Singapore.

The dull yellowish female of this apparently workerless inquiline is small, about the same size as the floricola worker and distinctly smaller than the reproductive female of floricola. In most aspects of its morphology the hospitum female is unexceptional but the mandibles are highly specialized, showing a reduction in dentition which is paralleled in some other inquilines (e.g., Monomorium pergandei ). In hospitum the masticatory margin of the female mandible consists of a straight edentate proximal half and a massively extended distal half which projects as a relatively large single sharp tooth. The inner margin of this large tooth shows minute crenellations which appear to be the vestigial remains of 2 preapical teeth. On each side this enlarged tooth projects far across beyond the midline of the clypeus, even projecting beyond the blunt prominence of the median portion of the clypeus on the opposite side from its insertion. Apart from the mandible the head is normal for Monomorium.

The female alitrunk in dorsal view is very narrow, much narrower than the head. The mesoscutum is somewhat reduced but parapsidal grooves are still present. Wing remnants illustrate that the females are alate when virgin.

From the original description the male, which I have not seen, seems unremarkable except for the fact that the antennal segmentation is reduced to 12, a character shared with other inquilines in this group.

Type Material
Bolton (1987) - Syntype females and males, Singapore: no. 13: 71 (H. Overbeck) (MNHU) [female examined].