Tetramorium sikorae Forel

Bolton, B., 1979, The ant tribe Tetramoriini (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). The genus Tetramorium Mayr in the Malagasy region and in the New World., Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Entomology 38, pp. 129-181 : 138-139

Tetramorium sikorae Forel

Tetramorium (Xiphomyrmex) sikorae Forel, 1892: 522 . Syntype workers, Madagascar: Amparafaravantsiv (Sikora) (MHN, Geneva) [examined]. Xiphomyrmex latior Santschi , 1926: 243. Syntype workers, Madagascar: Fananantsoa [= Fianorantsoa on data label] (Descarpentries) (NM, Basle) [examined]. Syn. n.

Worker. TL 2.7 - 3.2, HL 0.64 - 0.70, HW 0.54 - 0.60, CI 84 - 91, SL 0.40 - 0.46, SI 71 - 80, PW 0 - 42 - 0.48, AL 0.74 - 0.88 (5 measured).

Mandibles smooth with scattered small pits, median clypeal carina distinct. Frontal carinae extended back well beyond the level of the eyes, almost parallel and forming the upper margins of a shallow scrobe which is capable of accommodating the scape. With the alitrunk in profile the metanotal groove shallowly impressed. Propodeum armed with a pair of short, triangular teeth which are shorter than the broadly triangular metapleural lobes. Dorsum of head with very fine longitudinal rugulae and a distinct interrugal sculpture of fine but conspicuous superficial puncturation. Dorsal alitrunk finely rugulose, the pedicel and gaster unsculptured, smooth and shining. Erect or suberect long, fine hairs present on all dorsal surfaces of the body but may be absent from the pedicel segments. Colour yellow-brown.

A small and quite distinctive species, sikorae has nevertheless been confused with the cognatum complex in the past. The best character for separating them lies in the fact that sikorae has numerous erect or suberect hairs on the first gastral tergite; such hairs being absent in cognatum and its allies.

Within the schaufussi-group, sikorae forms the central species of what may be loosely termed the sikorae-complex, including the close pair of sikorae and schaufussi , and the rather more distantly related xanthogaster , all of them possessing, within the schaufussi-group, hairs on the first gastral tergite. In xanthogaster the frontal carinae are feeble, scrobes are absent and the propodeal spines are quite long, besides which the species is bicoloured. The two remaining species are best separated by the characters given under schaufussi .

Material examined

Madagascar: vic. Andasibe (= Perinet) (W. L. & D. E. Brown). Reunion I. (ex coll. Mayr).