Aphaenogaster simulans Forel, 1915

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 : 68

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.20362/am.015006
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15474216
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03B68783-3116-FFE6-FD73-7A9CFBC2F8F7
treatment provided by	Felipe
scientific name	Aphaenogaster simulans Forel, 1915
status

Treatment

Aphaenogaster simulans Forel, 1915 View in CoL stat. n.

Aphaenogaster (Deromyrma) feae r. simulans Forel, 1915: 31 View in CoL (w.q.m.)

Subspecies of Aphaenogaster feae View in CoL : Emery, 1921: 65; Chapman & Capco, 1951: 133; Bolton, 1995: 73.

Material examined. Bukit Timah Nature Reserve , near BT01, 1.35764, 103.77491, 1 Feb 2017, W. Wang leg., ZRC _ ENT00007570 View Materials GoogleMaps ; Mandai Road , plot 1, 1.38252, 103.80208, 16 Nov 2016, G.W. Yong et al. leg., M1D4GH2159, ZRC _ ENT00047838 View Materials GoogleMaps ; Nee Soon Swamp Forest , 1.38252, 103.80208, 25 Sep 2017, W. Wang leg., NS_W1, leaf litter, Winkler extraction, ZRC _ ENT00047839 View Materials GoogleMaps ; same locality as previous, Woodcutter’s trail, 4 Sep 2017, W. Wang leg., ZRC _ ENT00000985 View Materials GoogleMaps .

Material not physically examined. Unknown.

Literature. None. New record.

Localities. Bukit Timah Nature Reserve; Mandai; Nee Soon Swamp Forest.

Habitat/Ecology. This species is associated mostly with primary or mature secondary forests in Singapore, including swamp forest, where workers are usually found foraging on leaf litter or in Nepenthes pitcher contents. At the time of writing, a single occurrence of the species had also been recorded at an abandoned park - young secondary forest.

Remarks. Originally described as a subspecies of Aphaenogaster feae Emery, 1889 , A. simulans can be distinguished from the former based on the following ( A. feae characters in parentheses): 1) propodeal spines/denticles very short and blunt, barely protruding from propodeal junction (propodeal spines relatively longer, acute, distinctly protruding from propodeal junction), 2) petiolar node in dorsal view roughly as long as wide, broadly ovate (petiolar node in dorsal view distinctly longer than wide, elongate-ovate), 3) head in full face view, excluding the narrowed neck, ca. 1.5 times longer than wide, area posterior to eyes somewhat conical or like an inverted-cone (head in full face view, excluding the neck, only slightly longer than wide (<1.5 times), area posterior to eyes semi-circular).

We believe that these observed differences, some of which were also mentioned in original descriptions for both species, justify the raising of simulans to species.