Polyrhachis australis

An arboreal species that builds nests of silk and vegetation debris between the leaves of trees and shrubs along the margins of lowland rainforests and woodlands.

Identification
Kohout (2006): A characteristic species combining more-or-less angular pronotal humeri with well developed propodeal spines. It closely resembles Polyrhachis hoelldobleri but differs in the development of pronotal humeri. In P. australis the humeri are obtusely angular or narrowly rounded, while all examined specimens of hoelldobleri have distinctly angular or virtually bilobed humeri, similar to those of Polyrhachis levior Roger from Indonesia or Polyrhachis pacifica from the Solomons. In addition, the lateral petiolar spines in P. australis are distinctly longer than the dorsal spines, while all the petiolar spines in P. hoelldobleri are subequal.

Distribution
Kohout (2006): Ranging from about Cairns south to the Queensland-New South Wales border and as far west as Forty Mile Scrub and Undara. A single specimen has very recently been collected from Davenport Range NP in the Northern Territory (A. Andersen, pers. comm.).

This taxon was described from Australia.

Abundance
Rather common species in suitable localities along the tropical and subtropical coast of eastern Australia.

Type Material
Kohout (2006): Holotype worker presumed lost. Neotype worker: Cape Hillsborough NP, 20°55’S, 149°02’E, 1.vi.1996 (RJK acc. 96.2). The neotype has been deposited in the (QMT99332), together with the rest of the colony consisting of 106 workers, 4 alate queens and numerous immature stages (eggs, larvae in various stages of development and pupae).

Type Locality Information
Port Mackay, Ostaustralien (= Mackay, QUEENSLAND).

The neotype was selected from a polydomous colony collected from a silk nest built between the leaves of low shrub in open forest at Cape Hillsborough NP (RJK acc. 96.2). This locality is situated only about 30km NW of Mackay.