Australian species of the ant genus Dolichoderus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
Author
Shattuck, Steven O.
Author
Marsden, Sharon
text
Zootaxa
2013
3716
2
101
143
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.3716.2.1
f685afba-b823-44c6-8ec9-f931fee7647a
1175-5326
248496
E76C890A-DC27-4B8A-90CD-41D10682E8FA
Dolichoderus kathae
sp. n.
(
Fig. 15
)
Types
.
Holotype
worker and 1
paratype
worker from Mambray Creek Camp Ground, Mt. Remarkable National Park,
32°49'48"S
138°01'48"E
,
30 March 1992
, S.O. Shattuck (ANIC,
holotype
ANIC32-063770,
paratype
ANIC32-066583).
Diagnosis
. Sculpturing on head minimal, either essentially absent or consisting of very fine reticulations; head yellowish-red in colour; pronotum and propodeum lacking spines; dorsum of pronotum finely reticulate, the surfaces matte; dorsum of propodeum evenly convex, the angle at approximately the same level as the metanotal groove; posterior face of propodeum weakly concave, separated from the dorsal face by at most a weakly defined angle.
Dolichoderus kathae
is similar to
D. rutilus
but differs in having the head and dorsum of the pronotum finely reticulate and matte while these areas are smooth and shiny in
D. rutilus
. It is also similar to
D. parvus
, differing primarily in the shape of the propodeum. In
D. kathae
(and
D. rutilus
), the angle of the propodeum is relatively high, the dorsal surface being uniformly convex. In
D. parvus
the angle is relatively low as the dorsal surface drops posteriorly relative to the metanotal groove, giving the surface an asymmetrical appearance.
Worker description
. See
Fig. 15
. Sculpturing on the katepisternum (pleuron of the mesothorax) varying from smooth to longitudinally striate, but otherwise all specimens similar to that figured.
Measurements
(n=5). CI 84–89; EI 34–36; EL 0.30–0.32; HL 1.01–1.07; HW 0.86–0.92; ML 1.39–1.51; MTL 0.74–0.79; PronI 61.72–64.91; PronW 0.53–0.59; SI 111–116; SL 1.00–1.03.
FIGURE 15.
Dolichoderus kathae
, holotype worker (ANIC32-063770). A. Front of head; B. Side of body; C. Top of body; D. Distribution of material examined (coordinates of specimen from Northern Territory not available).
Material examined
.
Northern Territory
: Moolawatana (Donnellan,S.) (SAMA);
South
Australia
:
5km
E
Gibraltar
Rocks, N Tarcoola (Greenslade,P.J.M.) (ANIC); Olympic Dam (Matthews,E.G. & Watts,C.) (ANIC).
Comments
.
Dolichoderus kathae
has been collected from
Callitris
woodlands. It is known from a limited number of collections across semi-arid South
Australia
.