Mesoponera javana ( Forel, 1905 )

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 : 128

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.20362/am.015006
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03B68783-312A-FFDA-FF0F-7AE3FBB1FED7
treatment provided by	Felipe
scientific name	Mesoponera javana ( Forel, 1905 )
status

Treatment

Mesoponera javana ( Forel, 1905) View in CoL stat. n.

Euponera (Mesoponera) rubra var. javana Forel, 1905: 6 (q.m)

Combination in Pachycondyla View in CoL : Brown, 1995: 306.

Combination in Mesoponera : Schmidt & Shattuck, 2014: 111.

Subspecies of Mesoponera rubra : Emery, 1911: 81; Wheeler, 1924: 242; Karavaiev, 1926: 419; Chapman & Capco, 1951; Bolton, 1995: 306.

Senior synonym of Mesoponera rubra minirubra : Özdikmen, 2010 (unnecessary replacement name)

Material examined. Queen and worker, Low- er Peirce, 7 May 2017, G.W. Yong leg., ZRC _ ENT00027967 View Materials ; Bukit Timah forest , 26 Nov 1969, D.H. Murphy leg., ZRC _ HYM_0000832; Upper Thomson Nature Park , 19 Oct 2016, G.W. Yong et al. leg., ZRC _ ENT00057834 View Materials .

Material not physically examined. Unknown

Literature. None. New record.

Localities. Bukit Timah Nature Reserve; Lower Peirce; Upper Thomson Nature Park.

Habitat/Ecology. Individuals were found in either primary or old/mature secondary forests in Singapore, usually in leaf litter or in soil at bases of trees. In one instance, workers were collected under bark of a rotting log, in wet sand.

Remarks. Mesoponera javana resembles M. rubra , but is generally smaller – the queen of M. javana is either similar in size to or smaller than the worker of M. rubra . The workers of M. javana can also be differentiated from M. rubra based on the following ( M. rubra traits in parentheses): 1) median part of clypeus produced anteriorly as a broad, subtriangular lobe with median apical point and distinct rounded, translucent lamellate edge (median part of clypeus weakly produced anteriorly as a shallow, broadly convex lobe with indistinct lamellate edge), 2) eye relatively larger and closer to anterior margin of head, shortest distance of eye to mandibular insertions less than 2x eye length (eye relatively smaller and further away from anterior margin of head, shortest distance of eye to mandibular insertion more than or equal to 2x eye length).

Condition of the clypeus, i.e., character (1) previously mentioned, can be used to differentiate between queens of the two species as well, besides body size.