Megalomyrmex timbira Brandão, 1990

Brandão, Carlos Roberto F., 2003, Further Revisionary Studies On The Ant Genus Megalomyrmex Forel (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Myrmicinae: Solenopsidini) C R F. B Abstract, Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia (São Paulo) 43 (8), pp. 145-159 : 153-154

Megalomyrmex timbira Brandão, 1990

I described this rather distinctive species based on two workers collected by John Lattke ( FAM) in La Flautera (ca. Palmira ) Tachira province, Venezuela, but received since then three more samples, all collected by the same collector in the same Venezuelan Tachira province, as follows: one worker from El Espinal (“ entre Michelena y Colón ”, 1260 m of altitude, August 9, 1983 (08°59’N, 72°15’W); two workers from San Cristóbal, La Parada Los Pirineos, 1100 m, September 13, 1984 (collected with G. Vivas) (07°46’N, 72°14’W for San Cristóbal) and two workers from Quebrada La Bermeja, Loma del Rio Sán Cristóbal, 1100 m, August 12,198 3 (collected with G. Borges; Formicidae 379, I.Z.A. – U.C. V.). They agree in all originally cited characters with the types .

I studied a worker of M. timbira collected in Orito , 1000 m, bosque, Terrritório Kofan, Narinõ, Colombia (00°30’N, 77°13’W), in November 24, 1998 by E. L. Gonzales ( IHVL) .

To distinguish M. timbira from M. staudingeri , as they seem to occur sympatrically at the Colombian- Venezuelan border, I used not only the peculiar propodeal shape in M. timbira , but also the fact that in M. timbira the petiole is almost twice as wide as the postpetiole, while in M. staudingeri , they are of similar width. The shape of the postpetiole is similar to that depicted in figure 83 in Brandão (1990), while the dorsal profile of the postpetiole is always evenly rounded.

To the original description, I should add that the epipetiolar carina in M. timbira is complete around the foramen, although in some specimens the carina almost fades out at the mid propodeal declivitous face. Some specimens are distinctly more hairy in relation to the type specimens and to other Megalomyrmex species in the Leoninus group.

Silvestrii group