Myrmicaria luteiventris Emery, 1900

Myrmicaria luteiventris Emery, 1900 View in CoL

Material examined. Queens, males and workers, Pulau Ubin, 1.42022, 103.94598, 31 Aug 2016, M.S. Foo, W. Wang & M. Tuan leg., WW-SG16-001, ZRC _HYM_0000247; same locality as previous, 1.41662, 103.99443, 4 Dec 2016, G.W. Yong & M.K.L. Wong leg., ZRC _HYM_0001079 GoogleMaps .

Material not physically examined. Type queen – FOCOL1597 ( ZMHB) .

Literature. Viehmeyer (1922) [type queen].

Localities. Bukit Timah Road; Pulau Ubin.

Habitat/Ecology. This subspecies was found in relatively disturbed old or mature secondary forest on an offshore island, where colonies were found in carton nests on the undersides of large leaves. Alates were collected from a lit-lamp in a garden.

Remarks. Myrmicaria luteiventris was originally described as a subspecies of M. arachnoides . It was later raised to species status in Pfeiffer et al. (2011), but the authors did not give any justification for this – it might have been likely a typographical error.

The queen of this species was first described by Viehmeyer (1922) based on specimens collected from Singapore, which were initially identified as M. arachnoides in Viehmeyer’s earlier publication (see Viehmeyer 1916).

The workers of M. luteiventris resemble that of M. arachnoides , except for their gaster, which is (for at least its posterior half) much paler in colour than the head and mesosoma. In M. arachnoides , the body is not distinctly bicolorous.

Further examination of colonies from other parts of Southeast Asia revealed other more compelling differences between workers of both species (Bakhtiar & Yamane 2022, unpublished). Myrmicaria luteiventris can be distinguished from M. arachnoides based on the same characters described under Remarks for M. adpressipilosa . As with M. arachnoides , M. luteiventris can also be differentiated from M. adpressipilosa by the latter’s generally uniform body colour.