Metapone leae

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Australasian Region: Australia.

Nomenclature

 *  leae. Metapone leae Wheeler, W.M. 1919h: 183, figs. 3, 4 (q.) AUSTRALIA.

Description
Gyne diagnosis. General and diagnostic features as illustrated and keyed here, and in Wheeler’s detailed (1919b) description and figures. Readily identified in the key to Australian species above. M. leae is one of the most peculiarly recognizable of all known Metapone species by virtue of its uniquely flattened head and mesosomal profiles (see Figs), laterally directed clypeal denticles, unusually constituted petiolar node (with the dorsum raised well above the level of the posterolateral denticles, the latter posterolaterally directed, and the posterior border in dorsal view between the denticles narrowly, medially convex and bilaterally concave, and the very reduced subpetiolar configuration. These characters will, we expect, be present also in the worker caste. The frontal carinae are densely translucent, so that in full frontal view the antennal bases can be faintly seen beneath (Fig 128)