Tetramorium lucayanum Wheeler

Bolton, B., 1979, The ant tribe Tetramoriini (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). The genus Tetramorium Mayr in the Malagasy region and in the New World., Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Entomology 38, pp. 129-181 : 172-173

Tetramorium lucayanum Wheeler

(Figs 36, 48)

Tetramorium lucayanum Wheeler, 1905: 100 , fig. L. Syntype workers, Bahamas: N. P., Nassau, Queen's Staircase (W. M. Wheeler) (AMNH, New York) [examined]. Tetramorium camerunense var. waelbroeki Forel, 1909: 53 . Holotype worker, Zaire: Kinchassa (= Kinshasha) (NM, Basle) [examined]. [Synonymy by Brown, 1964 a: 131.] Tetramorium lucayanum var. sexdens Forel, 1915: 357 . Syntype workers, Ireland: Dublin, in greenhouse (MNH, Geneva; BMNH) [examined]. [Synonymy by Brown, 1964 a: 131.] Tetramorium rectinodis Menozzi , 1942: 176, fig. 2 B. Syntype workers, Fernando Po: Musola, 9. ix. 39; San Carlos, x. 39 (H. Eidmann) (types presumed lost, not in Menozzi coll. at IE, Bologna). [This species also described as new by Menozzi, 1944: 454. Provisional synonymy of Brown, 1964 a: 131, here confirmed.]

Worker. TL 2.8 - 3.2, HL 0.72 - 0.80, HW 0.64 - 0.71, CI 86 - 91, SL 0.54 - 0.61, SI 82 - 87. PW 0.46 - 0.53, AL 0.80 - 0.92 (30 measured).

Mandibles usually very feebly longitudinally striate but almost smooth in some populations. Anterior clypeal margin with a weak median impression or notch. Frontal carinae extending back almost to the occiput, forming the dorsal margins of the shallow and broad antennal scrobes. Outline shape of alitrunk and pedicel segments as in Fig. 36. Propodeum armed with a pair of elongate straight spines, the metapleural lobes elongate-triangular and acute, usually upcurved but less commonly almost straight. Petiole in profile with the node ascending vertically from the peduncle, the anterior and dorsal faces meeting in a sharp right-angle. The posterodorsal angle of the node is distinctly more rounded than this. In dorsal view the petiole node with a low but sharp carina traversing the anterior face, the node longer than broad even if only slightly so. Dorsum of head with well spaced out, sharply defined longitudinal rugulae without any cross-meshes and without trace of a rugo-reticulum occipitally, the spaces between the rugulae virtually smooth, with only the faintest traces of ground sculpture. Dorsal alitrunk similarly but less regularly sculptured, sometimes with a few weak cross-meshes, at least on the mesonotum. Petiole dorsum irregularly and quite strongly rugulose, distinctly more strongly sculptured than the postpetiole which has only scattered weak longitudinal rugulae dorsally. Gaster unsculptured. All dorsal surfaces of head and body with numerous standing hairs; antennal scapes and tibiae without such hairs, only with fine dense pubescence. Colour uniform mid-brown to black, the appendages usually somewhat lighter in shade than the body.

Material examined (New World)

Bahamas: Nassau (W. M. Mann). Virgin Is.: St Croix (W. F. Buren). Puerto Rico: Mayaguez (M. R. Smith). Jamaica: Kingston (W. M. Wheeler). Cuba: Cienfuegos (W. M. Wheeler); Guantanamo (W. M. Mann); Cristo (W. M. Mann); Oriente, Yateras Dist. (W. M. Mann).

Additions and corrections to previous parts (Bolton, 1976; 1977) of this study