Adelomyrmex myops W.M. Wheeler, 1910

Longino, John T., 2012, A review of the ant genus Adelomyrmex Emery 1897 (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in Central America, Zootaxa 3456, pp. 1-35 : 24-25

Adelomyrmex myops W.M. Wheeler, 1910

Figure 6 , 7 , 22

Apsychomyrmex myops Wheeler, W.M. 1910: 261, fig. 2. Holotype worker: Guatemala, Livingston, “10.87” (Schwarz and Barber) [USNM type No. 13198] (examined). Description of larva: Wheeler, G.C. & Wheeler, J. 1955: 29. Description of queen: Fernández, 2003: 25. Combination in Adelomyrmex: Kempf, 1972: 18 .

Geographic range. Guatemala to Panama, Ecuador (Galapagos).

Biology. Most records reveal A. myops to be a lowland species but with less habitat specificity than other Adelomyrmex . It occurs in mature forest of varying seasonality, from aseasonal wet forest to strongly seasonal dry forest. It also has been collected in disturbed habitats, including a cacao plantation in Honduras. There is a record from the Galapagos Islands, where it is probably introduced ( Herrera & Longino 2008). It can be locally abundant, occurring in up to 20% of quantitative miniWinkler samples. The great majority of records are from 600 m elevation or lower, but an anomalous site is Cerro Musún in Nicaragua. Adelomyrmex myops occurred in Winkler samples from 1000–1100 m, but not in quantitative Winkler sampling around 700 m.

Comments. Fernández (2008) had a broad concept of A. myops and recognized the likelihood that it would resolve into multiple species. Additional material has proven him correct, and some of the variants discussed by him are here recognized as separate newly-described species.

In some cases, the dorsal promesonotal rugae of workers are somewhat longitudinally oriented, blurring the distinction between A. myops , A. tristani , and A. paratristani . The dorsal rugae are never strongly linear, like most collections of A. tristani and A. paratristani . Nearly all A. tristani have strongly linear dorsal rugae, but there is more variation in A. paratristani , where some workers have strongly vermiculate rugae, approaching the condition of some A. myops workers. In other words, A. myops occupies the range of variation from completely reticulate rugose to strongly vermiculate rugose with some longitudinal orientation, while A. paratristani ranges from the latter condition to having completely linear, parallel, longitudinal rugae. Adelomyrmex myops has dorsal pilosity more like A. tristani than A. paratristani . This is most evident on the gaster, where A. paratristani usually has sparse, long, erect setae, with very reduced presence of more decumbent setae beneath them, while A. myops has a denser brush of erect and subdecumbent setae.

Queens of A. myops have an abrupt transition from longitudinal rugae on the mesonotum to coarse, reticulate rugosity on the scutellum. In A. tristani and A. paratristani , the scutellum has longitudinal, subparallel rugae.

Figures

FIGURE 6. Promesonotal dorsum of (A) Adelomyrmex myops and (B) A. tristani.

FIGURE 7. Profile of (A) Adelomyrmex metzabok and (B) A. myops.

FIGURE 22. Distribution of material examined in this study: Adelomyrmex dentivagans sp. nov., A. foveolatus, A. longinoi, A. myops, A. robustus, A. silvestrii. Occurrences of A. myops in the Galapagos and A. silvestrii in northern Mexico (Tamaulipas) not shown.