Nylanderia assimilis (Jerdon, 1851)

Wachkoo, Aijaz Ahmad & Bharti, Himender, 2014, First description of the worker caste of Nylanderiasmythiesii (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), Biodiversity Data Journal 2, pp. 1163-1163 : 1163

Nylanderia assimilis (Jerdon, 1851)

Formica assimilis Jerdon, 1851 - Jerdon 1851: 125 (w.) INDIA. Combination in Prenolepis : Dalla Torre 1893: 177; in Paratrechina (Nylanderia) : Emery 1925: 219; in Nylanderia : LaPolla et al. 2010: 127. Species inquirenda

Notes

The original descriptions is exceedingly inadequate and very little is known about the collection of Jerdon. Dalla Torre (1893) transferred it from Formica to Prenolepis , possibly because the body size, presence of large eyes and scattered white hairs all over the body mentioned in description mostly match the generic diagnosis of Prenolepis ; subsequently Emery (1925) by implication transferred it to Nylanderia . Most of the taxa by Jerdon are invalid and have been synonymized or treated as incertae sedis. From the original description it could easily be argued that Nylanderia assimilis is yet another synonym of Paratrechina longicornis (Latreille, 1802), as the combination of characters mentioned by Jerdon (1851): large eyes, white hairs, body color and size are present only in Paratrechina longicornis of Prenolepis genus group from India. Moreover, Jerdon (1851) mentions it to be a frequent visitor of flowers, which also agrees with opportunistic feeding behavior of Paratrechina longicornis . Further, a Ph.D. thesis has been done on Formicidae of Malabar, India, the type locality of Nylanderia assimilis , but it could not be found. Bingham (1903) also excluded it from his study. Therefore, authors argue for its doubtful status and consider it species inquirenda.