Dolichoderus scrobiculatus

Dolichoderus scrobiculatus is the only species of the genus common in the Australian wet tropics, being found from Cape York Peninsula south to north-eastern New South Wales. It occurs in savannah woodlands to rainforests and nests in tussocks and under rocks. Workers commonly forage on low vegetation.

Identification
Pronotum and propodeum lacking spines; posterior face of propodeum strongly concave, separated from the dorsal face by a distinct carina; sculpturing on head consisting of large, shallow to moderately deep fovea; pubescence on first gastral tergite abundant, the individual hairs overlapping; dorsum of pronotum heavily sculptured, the surface dull; gaster similar in colour to body (both dark brown to black).

This species resembles Dolichoderus clusor and Dolichoderus turneri. It can be distinguished from D. clusor by the presence of heavy sculpturing on the pronotum and from D. turneri by the similarly coloured gaster and body (both being dark brown to black in D. scrobiculatus while in D. turneri the gaster is lighter in colour than the body).

Key to Australian Dolichoderus Species

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Australasian Region: Australia.

The two southern outlier records, from southern New South Wales and Victoria, were made many years ago and now collections have been made since. The status of this species in these areas seems doubtful.

Nomenclature

 *  scrobiculatus. Hypoclinea scrobiculata Mayr, 1876: 80 (w.) AUSTRALIA. Combination in Dolichoderus: Dalla Torre, 1893: 161; in D. (Hypoclinea): Emery, 1894c: 228. See also: Clark, 1930b: 260.

Description
All known specimens closely resemble each other.

Measurements (n=5). CI 94–96; EI 26–28; EL 0.26–0.29; HL 1.04–1.12; HW 0.98–1.07; ML 1.39–1.51; MTL 0.79–0.85; PronI 74.95–80.10; PronW 0.76–0.84; SI 96–100; SL 0.94–1.03.

Additional References

 * Shattuck, S.O. & Marsden, S. 2013. Australian species of the ant genus Dolichoderus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Zootaxa 3716, 101–143 (doi 10.11646/zootaxa.3716.2.1).