Temnothorax obliquicanthus

Mackay (2000) "One nest was in an exposed area surmounted by a 10-cm crater (Wheeler and Wheeler. 1986). One nest in New Mexico was in the soil together with Pheidole sp. Nests are monogynous (Frumhoff and Ward. 1992).The large eyes may be connected with the diurnal habitats of the ants in open areas. where the workers could scan the surrounding area before exiting the nest (Gregg. 1953). Cole (1954) was unable to locate this species at the type locality in 1952 (year after initial collection)."



Identification
Mackay (2000) "The worker of this species is easily recognized due to the large, kidney shaped eye. In addition, nearly all surfaces are densely and coarsely punctate. The entire first tergum is punctate, but the punctures are fine and difficult to see unless the light is placed to reflect from the surface. The antenna has 12 segments.

This species is easily recognized and separated from all other known North America Leptothorax by the large, oblong eyes. It could only be confused with L. liebi, which is pale yellow, with black eyes and has a completely smooth first tergum of the gaster. The sculpturing of the gaster would serve to further confirm the identity of this species. This species was independently discovered by Gregg (1953), but Cole described it first."

Range
USA: Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas.

Habitat
Mackay (2000) "Found in dry grassy areas (Cole. 1953; 1954; Gregg. 1953; Mackay. pers. obs.) to semi-moist meadows (Gregg. 1953) and to sagebrush or highly disturbed areas (Mackay et al.. 1987) and high, dry short-grass plains above a river valley (Gregg. 1953)."

Abundance
xxxxx Only known from a few collections. xxxxx

Biology
xxxxx At present we known nothing beyond the type information for Temnothorax xxxxxxxx. This ant was once a member of the now synonymized subgenus Myrafant and we can speculate that the biology of this species will be found to be like many other similar forms from North America:

xxxxx

Original Combination
"Leptothorax (Myrafant) obliquicanthus" Cole, 1953c: 28, figs. 1, 2 (w.) U.S.A. See also: MacKay, 2000: 380.

Type Material
As reported in Mackay (2000) "Holotype in Cole collection, paratypes in Cole collection and USNM, MCZC, AMNH [seen]."