Monomorium atomum procax Forel, 1911

Hamer, Matthew T., Lee, Jonathan Hon Chung, Tse, Cheung Yau Leo, Silva, Thiago S. R. & Guénard, Benoit, 2022, Remarkable diversity in a little red dot: a comprehensive checklist of known ant species in Singapore (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) with notes on ecology and taxonomy, Asian Myrmecology (e 015006) 15, pp. 1-152 : 84-85

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.20362/am.015006
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03B68783-3106-FFF1-FD73-7EC3FD62FDB7
treatment provided by	Felipe
scientific name	Monomorium atomum procax Forel, 1911
status

Treatment

Monomorium atomum procax Forel, 1911 View in CoL

Material examined. None available.

Material not physically examined. Syntype – CASENT0908766, ANTC31116 ( MHNG) .

Literature. Type – Forel (1911) [as Monomorium (Martia) atomus var. procax ]. Viehmeyer (1916), Overbeck (1924) [both as M. (Martia) atomus var. procax ].

Localities. Bukit Timah Hill; Bukit Timah Road.

Habitat/Ecology. This species was found in primary or mature/old secondary forest, also in a garden, where colonies were collected from dead, hollowed-out (tree) branches.

Remarks. Type locality in Singapore. We do not have more recent physical material for reliable systematic assessment. Differences between M. atomum and its subspecies procax are also subtle and difficult to discern from type images on AntWeb. Nevertheless, we observed one striking difference: the propodeum in M. atomum is distinctly much longer than wide in dorsal view, whereas in M. atomum procax the propodeum is only slightly longer than wide. We maintain the subspecies procax for want of more compelling empirical evidence and material to support a raise in status to species.