Iridomyrmex sanguineus

Iridomyrmex sanguineus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Dolichoderinae
Tribe:	Leptomyrmecini
Genus:	Iridomyrmex
Species:	I. sanguineus
Binomial name
	Iridomyrmex sanguineus; Forel, 1910

Iridomyrmex sanguineus occurs in the same climatic zone as I. reburrus and is the most common northern meat ant (Andersen, 2000).

Photo Gallery

Iridomyrmex sanguineus worker, Roebourne, Western Australia. Photo by Farhan Bokhari, 21 May 2011.
Iridomyrmex sanguineus worker, Roebourne, Western Australia. Photo by Farhan Bokhari, 21 May 2011.
Iridomyrmex sanguineus worker, Roebourne, Western Australia. Photo by Farhan Bokhari, 15 June 2011.

Identification

Keys including this Species

Key to Iridomyrmex species

Distribution

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: 22.5045° to -29.71666667°.


North Temperate	North Subtropical	Tropical	South Subtropical	South Temperate

Source: AntMaps

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Australasian Region: Australia (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

Yamada et al. (2007): Mounds of the termite Amitermes laurensis in northern Queensland, Australia, are frequently invaded and occupied by the meat ant Iridomyrmex sanguineus, but their interactions remain unclear. In 1999, 68 A. laurensis mounds that were mapped and examined for the presence of the meat ants in 1998 were studied by destructive sampling, and the occupancy percentages of the termites were compared during the 2 years of meat ant occupation. The results indicate that the occupancy percentages of the termites in the intact mounds (79%) are significantly different from those in the mounds that were occupied by the meat ants in 1998 (58%), 1999 (42%), or both (20%). Although the mean vales showed apparent differences, no significant difference was observed in the occupancy percentages among the latter three cases. Our results suggest that the meat ants are not lethal invaders of the termite mounds and that the recovery of the termite populations occurs after the meat ants abandon the mounds.

Castes

Worker

Images from AntWeb


Worker. Specimen code casent0172048. Photographer April Nobile, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences.	Owned by ANIC, Canberra, Australia.

Nomenclature

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

sanguineus. Iridomyrmex detectus var. sanguinea Forel, 1910b: 53 (w.) AUSTRALIA. Forel, 1915b: 79 (q.). Subspecies of purpureus: Greenslade, 1974: 247; Taylor & Brown, D.R. 1985: 102. Raised to species: Shattuck, 1993a: 134. See also: Heterick & Shattuck, 2011: 136.

Type Material

Syntype, 3 workers, Mackay, Queensland, Australia, ANIC32-008877, Australian National Insect Collection.
Syntype, 6 workers, Mackay, Queensland, Australia, Musee d'Histoire Naturelle Genève.

Description

Worker Description. Head. Posterior margin of head planar to weakly concave; erect setae on posterior margin in full-face view set in a row; sides of head noticeably convex; erect genal setae absent from sides of head in full-face view (one to a few small setae may be present near mandibular insertion). Ocelli absent; in full-face view, eyes set at about midpoint of head capsule; in profile, eye set anteriad of head capsule; eye semi-circular. Frontal carinae convex; antennal scape surpassing posterior margin of head by 1-2 x its diameter. Erect setae on scape present and abundant; prominence on anteromedial clypeal margin projecting as triangular spur; mandible elongate triangular with oblique basal margin; long, curved setae on venter of head capsule absent. Mesosoma. Pronotum moderately and evenly curved over its length. Erect pronotal setae numerous (12 or more), short and bristly. Mesonotum sinuous. Erect mesonotal setae moderate in number to numerous (6 or more), short and bristly. Mesothoracic spiracles always prominent as small, vertical protuberances; propodeal dorsum smoothly and evenly convex; placement of propodeal spiracle posteriad and near propodeal declivity; propodeal angle weakly present or absent, the confluence of the dorsal and declivitous propodeal faces indicated, if at all, by an undulation. Erect propodeal setae numerous (12 or more), short and bristly. Petiole. Dorsum of node acuminate, or convex; node thin, scale-like, orientation more-or-less vertical. Gaster. Non-marginal erect setae of gaster present on first gastral tergite; marginal erect setae of gaster present on first tergite. General characters. Allometric differences between workers of same nest absent. Colour brick red, gaster dark brown, legs dull brown, bluish green iridescence on gaster, purplish iridescence on legs, very weak pinkish iridescence on head and mesosoma. Colour of erect setae black.

Measurements. Worker (n = 55)—CI 88–100; EI 17–2 1; EL 0.30–0.40; EW 0.17–0.24; HL 1.66–2.32; HW 1.49–2.23; ML 0.7 1–1.13; PpH 0.19–0.33; PpL 0.75–1.19; SI 85–106; SL 1.45–1.92.

References

Forel, A. 1910b. Formicides australiens reçus de MM. Froggatt et Rowland Turner. Rev. Suisse Zool. 18: 1-94 (page 53, worker described)
Forel, A. 1915b. Results of Dr. E. Mjöbergs Swedish Scientific Expeditions to Australia 1910-13. 2. Ameisen. Ark. Zool. 9(1 16: 1-119 (page 79, queen described)
Greenslade, P. J. M. 1974a. The identity of Iridomyrmex purpureus form viridiaeneus Viehmeyer (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). J. Aust. Entomol. Soc. 13: 247-248 (page 247, Subspecies of purpureus)
Heterick, B.E. & Shattuck, S.O. 2011. Revision of the ant genus Iridomyrmex (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Zootaxa 2845: 1-175.
Heterick, B.E. 2021. A guide to the ants of Western Australia. Part I: Systematics. Records of the Western Australian Museum, Supplement 86, 1-245 (doi:10.18195/issn.0313-122x.86.2021.001-245).
Heterick, B.E. 2022. A guide to the ants of Western Australia. Part II: Distribution and biology. Records of the Western Australian Museum, supplement 86: 247-510 (doi:10.18195/issn.0313-122x.86.2022.247-510).
Majer, J.D., Castalanelli, M.A., Ledger, J.L., Gunawardene, N.R., Heterick, B.E. 2018. Sequencing the ant fauna of a small island: Can metagenomic analysis enable faster identification for routine ant surveys? Sociobiology 65, 422-432 (doi:10.13102/sociobiology.v65i3.2885).
Shattuck, S. O. 1993a. Revision of the Iridomyrmex purpureus species-group (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Invertebr. Taxon. 7: 113-149 (page 134, Raised to species)
Taylor, R. W.; Brown, D. R. 1985. Formicoidea. Zool. Cat. Aust. 2:1- 149: 1-149, 30 (page 102, Subspecies of purpureus)
Yamada, A., Inoue, T., Hyodo, F., Tayasu, I., Abe, T. 2007. Effects of mound occupation by the meat ant Iridomyrmex sanguineus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) on the termite Amitermes laurensis (Isoptera: Termitidae) in an Australian woodland. Sociobiology 50(1): 1-9.

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

Andersen A. N. 1991. Responses of ground foraging ant communities to three experimental fire regimes in a savanna forest of tropical Australia. Biotropica 23(4b): 575-585.
Andersen A. N., B. D. Hoffmann, W. J. Muller, and A. D. Griffiths. 2002. Using ants as bioindicators in land management: simplifying assesment of ant community responses. Journal of Applied Ecology 39: 8-17.
Andersen A. N., J. C. Z. Woinarski, and B. Hoffman. 2004. Biogeography of the ant fauna of the Tiwi Islands, in northern Australia's moonsoonal tropics. Australian Journal of Zoology 52: 97-110.
Andersen A. N., J. Lanoue, and I. Radford. 2010. The ant fauna of the remote Mitchell Falls area of tropical north-western Australia: Biogeography, environmental relationships and conservation significance. Journal of Insect Conservation 14: 647-661.
Andersen A. N., and S. C. Morrison. 1998. Myrmecochory in Australia's seasonal tropics: effects of disturbance on distnce dispersal. Australian Journal of Ecology 23: 483-491.
Andersen, Alan N., John C.Z. Woinarski and Ben D. Hoffman. 2004. Biogeography of the ant fauna of the Tiwi Islands, in northern Australia's monsoonal tropics. Australian Journal of Zoology 52: 97-110.
Barrow L., and C. L. Parr. 2008. A preliminary investigation of temporal patterns in semiarid ant communities: variation with habitat type. Austral Ecology 33: 653-662.
CSIRO Collection
Fisher J., L. Beames, B. J. Rangers, N. N. Rangers, J. Majer, and B. Heterick. 2014. Using ants to monitor changes within and surrounding the endangered Monsoon Vine Thickets of the tropical Dampier Peninsula, north Western Australia. Forest Ecology and Management 318: 7890.
Heterick B. E. 2013. A taxonomic overview and key to the ants of Barrow Island, Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 83: 375-404.
Heterick B. E., B. Durrant, and N. R. Gunawardene. 2010. The ant fauna of the Pilbara Bioregion, Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum, Supplement 78: 157-167.
Heterick B. E., and S. Shattuck. 2011. Revision of the ant genus Iridomyrmex (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Zootaxa 2845: 1-174.
Majer J. D., and P. Camer-Pesci. 1991. Ant species in tropical Australian tree crops and native ecosystems - Is there a mosaic?
Shattuck S. O. 1993. Revision of the Iridomyrmex purpureus species-group (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Invertebrate Taxonomy 7: 113-149.
Trainor C.R. and A.N. Andersen. 2010. The ant fauna of Timor and neighbouring islands: potential bridges between the disjunct faunas of South East Asia and Australia. Australian Journal of Zoology 58: 133-144.
Trainor C.R., and A.N. Andersen. 2010. The ant fauna of Timor and neighbouring islands: potential bridges between the disjunct faunas of South East Asia and Australia. Australian Journal of Zoology 58: 133-144.
Woinarski J.C.Z., H. Reichel, and A.N. Andersen. 1998. The distribution of ants on the Wessel and English Company islands, in the seasonal tropics of Australia's Northern Territory. Australian Journal of Zoology 46: 557-578.