Dorymyrmex bossutus

Dorymyrmex bossutus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Dolichoderinae
Tribe:	Leptomyrmecini
Genus:	Dorymyrmex
Species:	D. bossutus
Binomial name
	Dorymyrmex bossutus; (Trager, 1988) Specimen labels

Common in open areas of Florida's sandhills habitats. It is known to remove seeds (Atchison & Lucky, 2022).

Identification

Trager (1988) - Worker small and shiny, particularly gaster which lacks or has at most very sparse pubescence; declivous face of mesonotum steep, often nearly vertical, giving a hunchbacked or strongly saddle-backed appearance.

Keys including this Species

Distribution

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: 32.86527778° to 26.03°.


North Temperate	North Subtropical	Tropical	South Subtropical	South Temperate

Source: AntMaps

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Nearctic Region: United States (type locality).

Distribution based on AntMaps

Distribution based on AntWeb specimens

Check data from AntWeb

Countries Occupied

Number of countries occupied by this species based on AntWiki Regional Taxon Lists. In general, fewer countries occupied indicates a narrower range, while more countries indicates a more widespread species.

Estimated Abundance

Relative abundance based on number of AntMaps records per species (this species within the purple bar). Fewer records (to the left) indicates a less abundant/encountered species while more records (to the right) indicates more abundant/encountered species.

Biology

Trager (1988) - D. bossutus is widely distributed in the sandhills and fossil dunes of Florida and is often associated with the turkey oak, Quercus laevis Walter. The nest entrance is circular, surrounded by a 5-10 mm wide crater of excavated soil, and located in small, vegetation-free patches so common in the sparse sandhill vegetation. In nest excavations, several dozen workers and numerous larvae and pupae were unearthed between 15 and 25 cm deep, few individuals any deeper. This species tolerates cutting over of trees and foot traffic in its habitat, but does not withstand tilling. Workers forage singly, usually in the shade, and may bear a superficial resemblance to workers of Pheidole dentata or Pheidole morrisii when seen in the field.

This species is a host for the ant Dorymyrmex reginicula (a inquiline) (possible host, needs confirmation).

Castes

Worker

Images from AntWeb


Paratype of Dorymyrmex bossutus. Worker. Specimen code casent0105876. Photographer Dan Kjar, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences.	Owned by USNM, Washington, DC, USA.

Queen

Images from AntWeb


Queen (alate/dealate). Specimen code casent0103861. Photographer April Nobile, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences.	Owned by ABS, Lake Placid, FL, USA.

Nomenclature

The following information is derived from Barry Bolton's Online Catalogue of the Ants of the World.

bossutus. Conomyrma bossuta Trager, 1988: 15, figs. 1, 8 (w.q.) U.S.A. Combination in Dorymyrmex: Shattuck, 1992c: 85. See also: Johnson, C. 1989b: 192.

Unless otherwise noted the text for the remainder of this section is reported from the publication that includes the original description.

Description

Worker

HL 0.77-0.88 (0.80), HW 0.63-0.75 (0.69), SL 0.75-0.88 (0.80), EL 0.18-0.23 (0.21), FL 0.63-0.80 (0.73), WL 1.00-1.25 (1.10), HTL 1.73-2.13 (1.90), CI 82.7-88.2 (86.2), SI 110.7-124.3 (115.9), OI 23.7-27.5 (26.2), FI 86.3-94.0 (91.2), TI 127.1-144.9 (137.5). N =25.

General form and characters as in figures, and in key.

Head broadest across eyes, with convex sides and straight occipital border; in full face view, sides often weakly convergent toward occiput; in specimens from south-central Florida, mesonotum may bear a small hump at meeting of dorsal and declivous faces, declivity usually steep, concave; steepness and concavity of mesonotal declivity less pronounced in holotype, and in general in specimens from northern and coastal parts of the species' range; propodeal cone proportionately higher in south-central Florida specimens.

Mandibles striate near base, striae becoming obsolete distally and replaced by smooth, elongate punctures; tessellation of head and thorax conspicuous, combining with very fine pubescence to offset the strong sheen of the intersculptural spaces; gastric sculpture shallow and inconspicuous and pubescence absent or composed of short, appressed setae separated by at least 2X their average length; gaster thus appearing very shiny.

Color ranging from head dark brown, thorax yellowish or reddish brown and gaster dark brown to nearly black (most common), to bicolored with thorax light reddish brown, head slightly darker, and gaster dark brown (occasional in northern part of range); to nearly uniform yellowish brown with infuscate gastric apex (least common, known only from Highlands Co., and one isolated population in Alachua Co., Florida).

Queen

HL 1.03-1.05, HW 1.03-1.04, SL 0.90-0.93, EL 0.35-0.36, TW 0.91-0.99, WL 2.08-2.18, HTL 3.11-3.25, CI 99.7-101.0, SI 87.4-90.3, or 33.3-35.0, TWI 88.3-95.2, TI 201.9-211. 7. N = 3.

Smaller and shinier, especially on gaster, than any other Dorymyrmex queen reported here except Dorymyrmex reginicula; head about as long as broad; sides angulo-convex, convergent toward clypeus; eyes strongly convex, their outer margins reaching or falling just short of sides of head; occipital border convex, less clearly set off from sides of head by occipital lobes than in other species; thorax slender, narrower than head. Sculpture as in worker, but shininess obscured by longer, denser pubescence; head and thorax brownish yellow; gaster shiny and rich brown, in some specimens with a yellowish patch near base.

Type Material

Holotype and 30 paratypes: FLORIDA, Alachua Co.: 3 mi. E Gainseville, San Felasco Hammock State Preserve. 18-26 June, 1987. James C. Trager leg. Holotype, Florida State Collection of Arthropods . Paratypes James C. Trager Collection, Florida State Collection of Arthropods , Archbold Biological Station, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, National Museum of Natural History, Museum of Comparative Zoology, American Museum of Natural History.

Etymology

The name bossuta is a latinization (and presumably vulgar Latin form) of the French adjective bossu, meaning humpbacked.

References

Atchison, R. A., Lucky, A. 2022. Diversity and resilience of seed-removing ant species in Longleaf Sandhill to frequent fire. Diversity 14, 1012 (doi:10.3390/d14121012).
Johnson, C. 1989b. Taxonomy and diagnosis of Conomyrma insana (Buckley) and C. flava (McCook) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Insecta Mundi 3: 179-194 (page 192, see also)
Shattuck, S. O. 1992c. Generic revision of the ant subfamily Dolichoderinae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Sociobiology 21: 1-181 (page 85, Combination in Dorymyrmex)
Trager, J.C. 1988. A revision of Conomyrma (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from the southeastern United States, especially Florida, with keys to the species. Florida Entomologist 71: 11-29. (page 15, figs.. 1, 8 worker, queen described)
Tschinkel, W.R. 2015. The architecture of subterranean ant nests: beauty and mystery underfoot. Journal of Bioeconomics 17:271–291 (DOI 10.1007/s10818-015-9203-6).

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

Annotated Ant Species List Ordway-Swisher Biological Station. Downloaded at http://ordway-swisher.ufl.edu/species/os-hymenoptera.htm on 5th Oct 2010.
Braman C. A., and B. T. Forschler. 2018. Survey of Formicidae attracted to protein baits on Georgia’s Barrier Island dunes. Southeastern Naturalist 17(4): 645-653.
Deyrup M., L. Deyrup, and J. Carrel. 2013. Ant Species in the Diet of a Florida Population of Eastern Narrow-Mouthed Toads, Gastrophryne carolinensis. Southeastern Naturalist 12(2): 367-378.
Deyrup, M. 2003. An updated list of Florida ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Florida Entomologist 86(1):43-48.
Shattuck S. O. 1994. Taxonomic catalog of the ant subfamilies Aneuretinae and Dolichoderinae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). University of California Publications in Entomology 112: i-xix, 1-241.
Trager J. C. 1988. A revision of Conomyrma (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from the southeastern United States, especially Florida, with keys to the species. Florida Entomologist 71: 11-29
Wetterer, J.K. and J.A. Moore. 2005. Red Imported Fire Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) at Gopher Tortoise (Testudines: Testudinidae) Burrows. The Florida Entomologist 88(4):349-354