Paraparatrechina opaca (Emery, 1887)

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 : 52-53

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.20362/am.015006
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03B68783-3166-FF91-FD73-78A3FD3FFD77
treatment provided by	Felipe
scientific name	Paraparatrechina opaca (Emery, 1887)
status

Treatment

Paraparatrechina opaca (Emery, 1887) View in CoL

Material examined. Upper Peirce Reservoir , 10 Jan 2014, Sk. Yamane leg., SG14-SKY-52, ZRC _HYM_0000466; Upper Thomson Nature Park, 1.38311, 103.79839, 9-11 Oct 2016, G.W. Yong leg., UT6, ZRC _ HYM_0001686-1689; same locality, collection date/s and collector as previous, UT1, ZRC _HYM_0001690-1691 GoogleMaps .

Material not physically examined. Unknown.

Literature. None. New record.

Localities. Upper Peirce Reservoir; Upper Thomson Nature Park.

Habitat/Ecology. This species is associated mostly with primary or mature secondary habitat in Singapore, also sometimes in young secondary habitat such as abandoned plantation secondary forests. These ants may be found foraging on tree trunks or in low foliage.

Remarks. Based on original descriptions (see Emery 1900) and type images on AntWeb, the subspecies metallescens differs from P. opaca in terms of having pale leg joints and basal half of antennal scape; in the type of P. opaca , leg joints are as brown as the rest of the leg, basal half of antennal scape not so pale. We have, however, observed that the aforementioned characters can occur in intermediate states among nest mates of P. opaca , thus these traits may not accurately distinguish between species/subspecies.

Moreover, according to Emery (1900), the subspecies metallescens can also be distinguished from P. opaca by being smaller (i.e., TL 2.25 mm compared to 2.75 mm),

and mesosoma having a purplish or greenish metallic sheen. The mesosoma of P. opaca specimens we examined however, also had a blue-greenish metallic sheen, despite them not having other supposedly diagnostic characters of subspecies metallescens mentioned in the previous paragraph.

Considering the above observations, and the isometric size variation shown in other species of this genus, it is possible that the subspecies metallescens may be a synonymous variant of P. opaca . We lack adequate material from a wider geographic range necessary to make definite taxonomic conclusions concerning the two forms in this study.