Stigmacros aemula

Wheeler (1934) found two queens nesting under a stone at Lady Edeline Beach, Rottnest Island (X. 23, 1931) and a queen and three workers running on bark of Callitris robusta trees at another location on the island.

Identification
Heterick (2009) - Stigmacros epinotalis is identical to Stigmacros aemula, except for the oblique declivitous face of its propodeum, and it is found over a similar range.

Distribution
Heterick (2009) - WA. Occurs on  the  Swan coastal  plain  and  adjacent  parts  of  the  Darling Range.

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Australasian Region: Australia.

Biology
Heterick (2009) - Stigmacros aemula is  the  most  common member of McAreavey’s subgenus Campostigmacros and  is  often  found  in  Perth  gardens. This shiny, brown and black species forages diurnally, and usually  makes  its  nests  directly  into  soil. Commonly, there  is  a  cluster  of  nests. Larger ergatogynes, recognizable  by  their  ocelli,  which the workers  lack,  excavate  nests  and  forage with the workers.

Nomenclature

 *  aemula. Acantholepis (Stigmacros) aemula Forel, 1907h: 298 (w.) AUSTRALIA. Wheeler, W.M. 1934d: 159 (q.). Combination in Stigmacros: Emery, 1925b: 34; in S. (Campostigmacros): McAreavey, 1957: 32.

Queen
Wheeler (1934) - dealated; Length 2-2.6 mm.

Resembling the worker. Head more rectangular, not longer than broad and less narrowed anteriorly. Eyes larger but not more convex than in the worker. Thorax similarly flattened above, about twice as long as broad, as broad through the wing insertions as the head; pronotum more than twice as broad as long, its posterior portion semicircular, embracing the anterior end of the mesonotum which is broader than long, narrowed behind, with excised sides; scutellum small and rather flat; base of epinotum two and one-half times as broad as long, with broadly excised) marginate posterior border; declivity one and two-thirds times as long, flat, more sloping than in the worker, with the lateral, spiracle-bearing teeth stouter. Petiolar scale large, broad, with distinctly sinuate superior border, in profile as high as the thorax, fully three times as high as thick and scarcely thinner above than below, with eon vex anterior and slightly concave posterior surface. Gaster large, broadly elliptical, its first segment truncated anteriorly.

Sculpture, pilosity and colour as in the worker, but the mesonotum is smoother and more shining and the thorax has the meso- and metapleurae, the scutellum, metanotum and epinotum, except its superior corners, black or infuscated; the mesonotum is also more or less diffusely infuscated, or with three broad fuscous vittae, and the pronotum may he spotted or clouded with fuscous.

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

 * Bisevac L., and J. D. Majer. 1999. Comparative study of ant communities of rehabilitated mineral sand mines and heathland, Western Australia. Restoration Ecology 7(2): 117-126.
 * Clark J. 1938. The Sir Joseph Banks Islands. Reports of the McCoy Society for Field Investigation and Research. Part 10. Formicidae (Hymenoptera). Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria (n.s.)50: 356-382.
 * Heterick B. E. 2009. A guide to the ants of south-western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 76: 1-206.
 * Wheeler W. M. 1934. Contributions to the fauna of Rottnest Island, Western Australia. No. IX. The ants. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 20: 137-163.