Brachymyrmex aphidicola Forel, 2007

Wild, A. L., 2007, A catalogue of the ants of Paraguay (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)., Zootaxa 1622, pp. 1-55 : 43-44

publication ID

21367

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:B08DA0DB-EEC0-4ED3-9FBE-59328B034102

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6239879

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/C0F618EB-E112-62D1-A778-449BB6FC39A4

treatment provided by

Thomas

scientific name

Brachymyrmex aphidicola Forel
status

NEW STATUS

Brachymyrmex aphidicola Forel   HNS 1909. NEW STATUS.

Brachymyrmex heeri var. aphidicola Forel   HNS 1909: 263. [w syntypes examined, MHNG; San Bernadino , Cordillera, Paraguay (Fiebrig)] .

Brachymyrmex heeri var. fallax Santschi   HNS 1923a: 665. NEW SYNONYMY. [Holotype examined, NHMB; Paraguay (s. loc.) ] .

There is little reason to consider Brachymyrmex heeri   HNS and B. aphidicola   HNS as conspecific, as both species are locally sympatric and morphologically distinct in eastern Paraguay. Brachymyrmex aphidicola   HNS is one of the most abundant ground and litter nesting ant species in Paraguayan forests. Brachymyrmex heeri   HNS is more rarely collected, the two nest records I have from Paraguay are both arboreal. The two species are easily separated by the pubescence on gastric tergite 1 (= abd. tergite 3), with the pubescence dense on B. heeri   HNS and sparse on B. aphidicola   HNS . Santschi’s type of B. heeri fallax   HNS (NHMB, examined) falls within the range of variation exhibited by B. aphidicola   HNS in Paraguay and is synonymized here. It is worth mentioning here that Paraguayan specimens of B. heeri   HNS are a close match, in both the worker and queen castes, to Forel’s types of B. heeri   HNS (MHNG examined) described from an introduced population in Switzerland (Forel 1874).

Given the notoriously poor taxonomic state of Brachymyrmex   HNS and the ubiquity of B. aphidicola   HNS in the region, there may well exist an older name for this species. A thorough taxonomic revision of this genus is sorely needed.

MHNG

Switzerland, Geneva, Museum d'Histoire Naturelle

NHMB

Switzerland, Basel, Naturhistorisches Museum

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Hymenoptera

Family

Formicidae

Genus

Brachymyrmex

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