Stigmacros aemula

AntWiki: The Ants --- Online
Stigmacros aemula
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Formicinae
Tribe: Melophorini
Genus: Stigmacros
Species: S. aemula
Binomial name
Stigmacros aemula
(Forel, 1907)

Stigmacros aemula casent0217812 p 1 high.jpg

Stigmacros aemula casent0217812 d 1 high.jpg

Specimen Labels

Wheeler (1934) found two queens nesting under a stone at Lady Edeline Beach, Rottnest Island (X. 23, 1931) and a queen and three workers running on bark of Callitris robusta trees at another location on the island.

Identification

Heterick (2009) - Stigmacros epinotalis is identical to Stigmacros aemula, except for the oblique declivitous face of its propodeum, and it is found over a similar range.

Keys including this Species

Distribution

Heterick (2009) - WA. Occurs on the Swan coastal plain and adjacent parts of the Darling Range.

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: -10.75° to -29.88333333°.

   
North
Temperate
North
Subtropical
Tropical South
Subtropical
South
Temperate

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Australasian Region: Australia (type locality).

Distribution based on AntMaps

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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

Heterick (2009) - Stigmacros aemula is the most common member of McAreavey’s subgenus Campostigmacros and is often found in Perth gardens. This shiny, brown and black species forages diurnally, and usually makes its nests directly into soil. Commonly, there is a cluster of nests. Larger ergatogynes, recognizable by their ocelli, which the workers lack, excavate nests and forage with the workers.

Castes

Nomenclature

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

  • aemula. Acantholepis (Stigmacros) aemula Forel, 1907h: 298 (w.) AUSTRALIA. Wheeler, W.M. 1934d: 159 (q.). Combination in Stigmacros: Emery, 1925b: 34; in S. (Campostigmacros): McAreavey, 1957: 32.

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

Description

Queen

Wheeler (1934) - dealated; Length 2-2.6 mm.

Resembling the worker. Head more rectangular, not longer than broad and less narrowed anteriorly. Eyes larger but not more convex than in the worker. Thorax similarly flattened above, about twice as long as broad, as broad through the wing insertions as the head; pronotum more than twice as broad as long, its posterior portion semicircular, embracing the anterior end of the mesonotum which is broader than long, narrowed behind, with excised sides; scutellum small and rather flat; base of epinotum two and one-half times as broad as long, with broadly excised) marginate posterior border; declivity one and two-thirds times as long, flat, more sloping than in the worker, with the lateral, spiracle-bearing teeth stouter. Petiolar scale large, broad, with distinctly sinuate superior border, in profile as high as the thorax, fully three times as high as thick and scarcely thinner above than below, with eon vex anterior and slightly concave posterior surface. Gaster large, broadly elliptical, its first segment truncated anteriorly.

Sculpture, pilosity and colour as in the worker, but the mesonotum is smoother and more shining and the thorax has the meso- and metapleurae, the scutellum, metanotum and epinotum, except its superior corners, black or infuscated; the mesonotum is also more or less diffusely infuscated, or with three broad fuscous vittae, and the pronotum may he spotted or clouded with fuscous.

Type Material

  • Acantholepis (Stigmacros) aemula Forel, 1907: Holotype, probably destroyed in ZMHB (Berlin) in WW II, Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia.

References

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

  • Bisevac L., and J. D. Majer. 1999. Comparative study of ant communities of rehabilitated mineral sand mines and heathland, Western Australia. Restoration Ecology 7(2): 117-126.
  • Clark J. 1938. The Sir Joseph Banks Islands. Reports of the McCoy Society for Field Investigation and Research. Part 10. Formicidae (Hymenoptera). Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria (n.s.)50: 356-382.
  • Heterick B. E. 2009. A guide to the ants of south-western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 76: 1-206. 
  • Wheeler W. M. 1934. Contributions to the fauna of Rottnest Island, Western Australia. No. IX. The ants. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 20: 137-163.