Cardiocondyla atalanta

Adapted to a xerothermous climate with annual rainfall < 1000 mm (Seifert 2008).

Identification
A member of the Cardiocondyla nuda group.

Distribution
Found throughout Australia, including in sympatry with Cardiocondyla nuda along the northern and eastern coast, and occasionally encountered on offshore islands.

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Australasian Region: Australia, Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island. Indo-Australian Region: New Guinea.

Nomenclature

 *  atalanta. Cardiocondyla nuda var. atalanta Forel, 1915b: 75 (w.) AUSTRALIA. Junior synonym of nuda: Taylor, 1991b: 601. Revived from synonymy and raised to species: Seifert, 2003a: 247. See also: Seifert, 2008: 44.

Taxonomic Notes
C. atalanta was synonymised with C. nuda by Taylor (1991 ). Seifert (2003 ) removed C. atalanta from synonymy and considered it to be represented by types only, the remaining Australian material belonging to C. nuda. More recently, Seifert (2008 ) modified his concept of C. atalanta to include essentially all Australian material and found only a few specimens which belonged to C. nuda. Unfortunately he could not find any readily observable characters to separate these two taxa with recognition being based on statistical differences in the length of pilosity hairs on the first gastral tergite. He states that "gastral pubescence length, scape length and postocular distance are significantly smaller in C. atalanta while gastral pubescence density is larger than in C. nuda. However, character overlap is considerable." Thus separation of these cryptic species is not possible using a simple morphology-based key such as this and identification will require more advanced morphometric procedures such as detailed by Seifert (2008 ).