Tetramorium ciliatum species group

AntWiki: The Ants --- Online

Based on Agavekar et al. 2017.

Diagnosis

Twelve-segmented antennae; anterior clypeal margin complete and unspecialized; eyes of moderate size; antennal scapes short to moderately long, not surpassing posterior head margin; antennal scrobes extremely variable, ranging from completely absent to strongly developed with well-defined margin all-around; frontal carinae variably developed but always long and well surpassing eye level; base of first gastral tergite not concave in dorsal view, without tubercles or teeth on each side; pilosity on dorsal surfaces of body erect with long to extremely long and fine hairs; sting appendage dentiform.

Notes

When proposing this group Bolton (1977) pointed out that he saw it more as a convenience group for species that did not fit well in other, better delineated species groups. Now, 40 years after Bolton’s (1977) revision, the situation has not changed and the group still represents an amalgamation of species with diverging morphological character sets. Of the nine valid species of the group, eight are distributed in South East Asia and only one species occurs in India: Tetramorium shivalikense. Whether the latter is indeed related to the other members of the group and if the group as whole is monophyletic or polyphyletic remains unclear. This can only be resolved with a comprehensive large-scale phylogenetic analysis including all Indomalayan species groups in general and most species of the Tetramorium ciliatum group in particular.

Additional Resources

References