A Guide to the Ants of South-western Australia

WA Museum Records and Supplements | Updated 8 years ago

ABSTRACT – This work constitutes a review of what is known about the ants of the South-West Botanical Province, a region internationally recognized as having a megadiverse flora. The ant fauna is also highly diverse, including no fewer than 12 subfamilies, 61 genera and at least 500 species. The author includes three illustrated taxonomic keys to the 13 Australian subfamilies, 61 genera and the workers of 497 morphospecies, respectively. The lastmentioned key includes all species described for the region, but excludes a tiny handful that cannot be identified with assurance because the information in the original description is too scant or the type specimens have been lost. Also included in the species key are workers of all the other morphospecies known from the Province that appear to constitute recognizable species, and are at present allocated voucher numbers in the Curtin Ant Collection. Many of the south-west ants (almost 50%) appear to be undescribed. All of the above ant taxa, described or undescribed, are included in a discussion following the keys. Novelties mentioned in the key to genus include the first WA record of the genus Mayriella, and the genus Rogeria (tentatively assigned to two species). The genus Anillomyrma is removed from the WA checklist, as the local species is now considered a Monomorium. Four species (Iridomyrmex argutus Shattuck (under Iridomyrmex innocens Forel), Iridomyrmex occiduus Shattuck (under I. innocens Forel), Pachycondyla (Trachymesopus) clarki Wheeler (under Pachycondyla (Trachymesopus) rufonigra Clark), and Crematogaster perthensis Crawley (under Crematogaster frivola (Forel)) here pass into synonymy, and Tapinoma rottnestense Wheeler becomes Doleromyrma rottnestensis (Wheeler) in a new combination. Also included in this work are short discussions on a variety of topics not well covered in the Australian ant literature, a comprehensive glossary of terms, a complete ant check list (Appendix 1) and a table showing known ant species distributions within the seven botanical districts that together make up the South-West Botanical Province (Appendix 2).