Odontomachus monticola

Kazuma et al. (2017) - Distributed mainly throughout south- and southeast Asia. In Japan, O. monticola were originally confined to the southwestern part of the country. Nevertheless, their habitat range has expanded to Tokyo due to climate change over the last few decades. They use their powerful stings to prey upon termites. Although they are not aggressive toward humans, their stings cause intense pain and prolonged itching.

Identification
A member of the Odontomachus rixosus group.

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Indo-Australian Region: Borneo, Indonesia, Malaysia. Oriental Region: Bangladesh, India, Laos, Myanmar, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam. Palaearctic Region: China, Japan.

Biology
Kazuma et al (2017) examined the composition of the venom of this ant through both transcriptomic and peptidomic analyses. They found: The transcriptome analysis yielded 49,639 contigs, of which 92 encoded toxin-like peptides and proteins with 18,106,338 mapped reads. We identified six pilosulin-like peptides by transcriptomic analysis in the venom gland. Further, we found intact pilosulin-like peptide 1 and truncated pilosulin-like peptides 2 and 3 by peptidomic analysis in the venom.

Nomenclature

 *  monticola. Odontomachus monticola Emery, 1892d: 560 (diagnosis in key) (w.) MYANMAR. Emery, 1895k: 463 (q.); Ogata, 1987: 126 (m.). Senior synonym of formosae, pauperculus: Yasumatsu, 1962: 93; of hainanensis, longi, major, punctulatus, striata: Brown, 1976a: 105. See also: Yoshimura, Onoyama & Ogata, 2007: 102.
 * longi. Odontomachus monticola var. longi Forel, 1900c: 58 (w.) INDIA. Junior synonym of monticola: Brown, 1976a: 105.
 * punctulatus. Odontomachus monticola r. punctulatus Forel, 1900c: 58 (w.) INDIA. Raised to species: Bingham, 1903: 49; Wheeler, W.M. 1930h: 61; Wu, C.F. 1941: 149. Junior synonym of monticola: Brown, 1976a: 105.
 * formosae. Odontomachus monticola var. formosae Forel, 1912a: 46 (w.q.m.) TAIWAN. Subspecies of monticola: Santschi, 1925f: 82. Junior synonym of monticola: Yasumatsu, 1962: 93.
 * major. Odontomachus monticola var. major Forel, 1913f: 183 (w.) TAIWAN. Junior synonym of monticola: Brown, 1976a: 105.
 * pauperculus. Odontomachus monticola subsp. pauperculus Wheeler, W.M. 1921c: 530 (w.) CHINA. Junior synonym of monticola: Yasumatsu, 1962: 93.
 * hainanensis. Odontomachus monticola var. hainanensis Stitz, 1925: 115, fig. 3 (w.) CHINA. Junior synonym of monticola: Brown, 1976a: 105.
 * striata. Odontomachus latidens susbp. striata Menozzi, 1930d: 329 (w.) CHINA. Junior synonym of monticola: Brown, 1976a: 105.

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