Chelaner insolescens

Identification Keys including this Taxon

 * Key to Australian Monomorium Species

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Australasian Region: Australia.

Nomenclature

 *  insolescens. Monomorium (Notomyrmex) insolescens Wheeler, W.M. 1934d: 145 (w.m.) AUSTRALIA. Combination in Chelaner: Ettershank, 1966: 97; in Monomorium: Taylor, 1987b: 3. See also: Heterick, 2001: 383.

Type Material
Described from six workers and two males taken by W. D. Dodd at Derby, West Australia.



Worker
Length 2.5-3 mm.

Head subrectangular, slightly longer than broad and scarcely broader jn front than behind, with feebly convex sides and concave posterior border. Eyes rather large, moderately convex, situated about their own length from the anterior corners of the head. Mandibles broad, their masticatory borders with five regular teeth, their external borders rather straight. Clypeus very short, strongly bicarinate, the carinae projecting anteriorly as two stout teeth, separated by a deep concavity. Frontal carinae flattened, horizontal, slightly lobulate behind the antennal insertions; frontal area small, indistinct, impressed; frontal furrow obsolete. Antennae 12-jointed, scapes reaching to about twice their greatest diameter from the posterior corners of the head; joints 2-7 of the funiculi a little broader than long; eighth joint as long as broad; club 3-jointed, its two basal joints subequal and together as long as the terminal joint. Thorax stout, about twice as long as broad, and nearly as broad as the head through the humeri, which are rounded, both the pro-mesonotal and the mesoepinatol sutures absent. Mesonotum and epinotum laterally compressed. In profile the thorax is convex in front, the dorsal outline straight, without mesoepinotal impression or constriction, sloping slightly at the base of the epinotum which is feebly angular in the middle in profile, longer than the declivity, which bears at its middle on each side a blunt denticle continued down as a ridge to the well-developed, translucent metasternal angle. Petiole and postpetiole stout, the peduncle of the former very short, the node subcuboidal, a little higher than long, with perpendicular anterior and posterior surfaces and horizontal summit; from above broader than long, rounded in front and straight behind. Postpetiole with a prominent acute tooth at its anteroventral end, the node somewhat lower than that of the petiole, also subcuboidal in profile, as long as high, rectangular from above, distinctly broader than long and broader than the petiolar note. Gaster small, lenticular, scarcely longer .than broad, convex above, with concave anterior border. Legs rather stout.

Shining; mandibles smooth, sparsely punctate; bead covered with scattered, piligerous punctures, cheeks and front longitudinally rugulose; thorax, petiole and postpetiole subopaque, densely and finely punctate, except the upper surface of the pronotum which is smooth and shining; meso- and metapleurae vaguely, longitudinally rugulose. Gaster and legs smooth and shining; sparsely punctate.

Hairs yellow, sparse, erect, moderately long on the body, shorter and more numerous on the legs and scapes.

Red; pedicel and posterior portion of thorax darker; head and antennae paler; gaster and legs, including coxae, yellow.

Male
Length 2.5 mm.

Heading including the eyes about as long as broad; hroadly convex behind; eyes and ocelli very large, cheeks very short; mandibles small 5-toothed; clypeus convex in the middle, with evenly rounded anterior border; frontal carinae short but distinct. Antennal scapes four times as long as broad, cylindrical, somewhat curved, first funicular joint as long as broad, not globose, the remaining joints longer but not narrowing distally. Thorax small and short, not broader than the head. Mesonotum convex, overarching the pronotum in front, without notauli (Mayrian furrows); scutellum rather small, not prominent. Epinotum sloping, without distinct base and declivity. Petiolar and postpetiolar nodes similar to those of the worker but smaller, lower and more rounded. Gaster small; genitalia prominent, the stipites thin, broad, rounded and incurved. Legs moderately slender. Wings with well-developed veins and pterostigma, with a discoidal and one cubital cell and the marginal cell open at the apex.

Mandibles shining, sparsely punctate; head opaque, densely and finely punctate; thoracic sculpture much as in the worker, but the sides of the epinotum and pedicel loosely, longitudinally rugulose.

Hairs shorter than in the worker and more abundant on the thorax and appendages.

Black; gaster, thoracic sutures and legs piceous; wings greyish hyaline, with pale brown veins and pterostigma.