Myrmelachista

Longino, J. T., 2006, A taxonomic review of the genus Myrmelachista (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Costa Rica., Zootaxa 1141, pp. 1-54 : 51

publication ID	21030
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:323B9B2C-F6AE-40B5-982B-4BBEA5317786
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6262148
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/AC7AF372-0D93-36BE-1553-2843E8017661
treatment provided by	Thomas
scientific name	Myrmelachista
status

Treatment

[[ Genus Myrmelachista View in CoL HNS ]]

The above are a set of species described together by Wheeler from material collected by Elisabeth Skwarra in southern Mexico. They are all very similar to plebecula HNS and joycei HNS . I cannot distinguish workers of amicta HNS , skwarrae HNS (and its two subspecies picea HNS and laeta HNS ), and plebecula HNS . The males of skwarrae HNS and plebecula HNS are distinct. The male of skwarrae HNS differs from plebecula HNS in having a basiparamere lobe and distinct (though minute) setose pygostyles. Myrmelachista skwarrae HNS males are more like joycei HNS . They differ from joycei HNS in the relatively thinner and more delicate basiparamere lobe and relatively larger ocelli.

If the Mexican forms prove to be geographic variants of plebecula HNS , the latter has priority. On the other hand, M. joycei HNS could prove to be a geographic variant of one of the previously named Mexican forms.