Polyrhachis (Myrmatopa) leviuscula Viehmeyer, 1916

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 : 59

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.20362/am.015006
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15474127
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03B68783-316F-FF9F-FF67-7E1CFB97FD17
treatment provided by	Felipe
scientific name	Polyrhachis (Myrmatopa) leviuscula Viehmeyer, 1916
status

Treatment

Polyrhachis (Myrmatopa) leviuscula Viehmeyer, 1916 View in CoL

Material examined. Sungei Buloh, 8 Jan 2014, Sk. Yamane leg., SG14-SKY-27, ZRC _ HYM_0000461 .

Material not physically examined. Types – CASENT0910788, ANTC33049 ( MHNG); FOCOL2554 View Materials ( ZMHB) [as types of Polyrhachis (Myrmatopa) schang var. leviuscula ]. Non-type – CASENT0906574, ANTC24598 ( BMNH) .

Literature. Type – Viehmeyer (1916); Overbeck (1924) [both as P. schang var. leviuscula ].

Localities. Buki Timah Road; Sungei Buloh.

Habitat/Ecology. Specimens of the type series were collected with a sweep net in a garden, thus we may infer that the ants forage on low foliage. A colony ‘of a very similar form’ was also found on a palm leaf in the same garden ( Overbeck 1924), but these have not been verified to be conspecific to P. leviuscula .

More recently (from the time of writing), the ants were found nesting in a rolled leaf in back mangrove forest.

Remarks. Type locality in Singapore. Physically unexamined non-type material (i.e., CASENT0906574) was collected by Dr. G.E. Brooke in 1912, preceding publication of the original species description, and was initially identified as P. schang var. laurae (now a junior synonym of P. leviuscula ).

The more recent specimens mostly confer with P. leviuscula in appearance, though with slightly weaker dorsolateral mesonotal projections/‘teeth’. The species resembles Polyrhachis (Myrmatopa) solmsi Emery, 1887 , but the latter has petiolar spines that are almost supine and more strongly directed posteriorly in profile view.