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Protanilla wallacei
| Protanilla wallacei | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Formicidae |
| Subfamily: | Leptanillinae |
| Tribe: | Leptanillini |
| Genus: | Protanilla |
| Species: | P. wallacei |
| Binomial name | |
| Protanilla wallacei Griebenow, 2024 | |
| At a Glance | • Ergatoid queen |
Protanilla wallacei and Protanilla lini are recovered as sister taxa in phylogenomic inference sampling from across the geographical range of the latter species (Griebenow, 2024).
Photo Gallery
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Identification
The worker caste of P. wallacei is extremely close to that of Protanilla lini but differs in overall smaller size and the shallowness of the postpetiolar node, with the posterior declivity of the postpetiolar node being gradual (Fig. 5B) rather than abrupt (Fig. 5A). PPI tends to be greater in P. wallacei (mean = 109) than in P. lini (mean = 100) but cannot be consistently used to discriminate the two. Interestingly, all known gynes of P. wallacei are ergatoid (Billen et al. 2013; Ito et al. 2022), whereas those of P. lini are alate (Hsu et al. 2017).
Protanilla wallacei shows intraspecific variation in labral chaeta count, which is also observed in putatively conspecific allopatric specimens of Protanilla gengma (Aswaj et al. 2020; Griebenow, 2024) and Protanilla beijingensis (Griebenow, 2024).
Keys including this Species
Distribution
Protanilla lini ranges across Taiwan and the Ryukyu Islands, while the P. wallacei specimens examined by Griebenow (2024) originate in the Sundan region. This allows for the possibility that these putative species are populations from extreme ends of a contiguous swath of metapopulations extending throughout southeast Asia. Further sampling in mainland southeast Asia may reciprocally efface the morphometric distinction between these species, and with the other members of the Protanilla lini species complex.
Latitudinal Distribution Pattern
Latitudinal Range: 5° to 4.1°.
| North Temperate |
North Subtropical |
Tropical | South Subtropical |
South Temperate |
- Source: Griebenow, 2024
Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Indo-Australian Region: Malaysia (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. |
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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. |
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Biology
Castes
Nomenclature
The following information is derived from Barry Bolton's Online Catalogue of the Ants of the World.
- wallacei. Protanilla wallacei Griebenow, 2024: 91, fig. 4 (w.) MALAYSIA (Sarawak, Sabah).
Type Material
- Holotype. Malaysia – Sarawak • 1 worker; Gunung Mulu National Park, 4th division; 4.09°N, 114.89°E (estimated from Google Earth to nearest minute); May–Aug. 1978, P. M. Hammond and J. E. Marshall leg.; CASENT0902782; BM1978–49, BMNH(E) 1015826. BMNH.
- Paratype. Malaysia – Sabah • 1 worker; Gunung Silam, Lahad Datu; 4.96°N, 118.17°E (estimated from Google Earth to nearest minute); 630m a.s.l.; 1983; R. Leakey leg; CASENT0842699; UCDC.
Taxonomic Notes
Protanilla wallacei appeared as a nomen nudum in Hölldobler and Wilson (1990), with the name purportedly being under description by Robert W. Taylor based upon material from Sabah. Such a description has not appeared. CASENT0842699 was identified as P. wallacei by Barry Bolton with reference to “type” material under description by Taylor, which, based on a paratype label assigned by Taylor, included CASENT0902782. Billen et al. (2013) described the glandular complement of specimens from peninsular Malaysia that was attributed to this nomen nudum by Taylor, while Ito et al. (2022) reported on the behavioral observations of specimens from that same series, referring to this species as Protanilla sp. Protanilla wallacei is here made an available name, described based upon worker specimens from Sabah. Judging from Billen et al. (2013: fig. 5E), the series referred to in that study and in Ito et al. (2022) conforms to the diagnosis of P. wallacei here given. The unidentified Protanilla that was the sole representative of the Leptanillinae in the phylogenomic analyses of Branstetter et al. (2017) (CASENT0634862) is here identified as P. wallacei.