Lordomyrma

Taylor, Robert W., 2009, Ants of the genus Lordomyrma Emery (1) Generic synonymy, composition and distribution, with notes on Ancyridris Wheeler and Cyphoidris Weber (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Myrmicinae), Zootaxa 1979, pp. 16-28 : 20-21

Lordomyrma species of lowland New Guinea and adjacent islands

Over 20 Lordomyrma species are known from New Guinea and adjacent Islands, but only 9 have been named. Most were described originally in Lordomyrma .

There is much greater structural variability among these species than those of Asia and Australia combined; the fauna is thus both species-rich and morphologically diverse.

Four taxa ( L. crawleyi , L. cryptocera , L. infundibuli and L. furcifera , with its junior synonym L. bensoni ), were described from a 175-180 km section of the north coast of mainland New Guinea, between Maffin Bay (138o51'E), West Papua, and Aitape (142o21'E), Papua New Guinea. The L. accuminata and L. rupicapra types very likely also came from near the north coast of the former German colony of Kaiser Wilhelms Land, between 141o E and 148o E. L. niger was described from 2, 500 ft. on Waigeo (= Waigeu) I., northwest of the West Papuan Vogelkop, and L. epinotalis far to the east, from Ysabel I, Solomon Islands.

As indicated above, L. cryptocera (Figs 5, 6) is the described Melanesian taxon most similar to those of Asia and Australia. This pivotal species relates separately and easily to L. accuminata and niger (neither yet illustrated), to the distinctive infundibuli (Figs 9, 10), and to a group of aberrant species close to furcifera ( Figs 7, 8 ), including L. crawleyi ( Figs 11, 12).

Other undescribed lowland New Guinean species appear to represent several additional lineages derived from stock similar to L. cryptocera , so that recognition of further species groups seems likely. New Guinea species have known palpal formulae of 3:3 or 3:2.

Unknown Lordomyrma species must be present in lowland New Guinea and on other Melanesian islands.

Figures

FIGURES 7, 8. Lordomyrma furcifera, Papua New Guinea, HW 0.89 mm, WL 1.32 mm. FIGURES 9, 10. Lordomyrma infundibuli, West Papua, HW 0.99 mm, WL 1.36 mm.