A Guide to the Ants of Western Australia. Part I: Systematics

WA Museum Records and Supplements | Updated 3 years ago

ABSTRACT – This volume, comprising two parts, continues the review of the Ants of Western Australia which commenced with ‘A Guide to the Ants of South-western Australia’ by the author (2009). Here, however, coverage of the entire state is attempted. All named species recorded for the state in the major Australian repositories are included, as well as unnamed species listed on the World Wide Web. The author has also inspected accessional and type specimens in the Australian National Insect Collection (ANIC), Canberra, ACT, and accessional material in the Tropical Ecosystems Research Centre (TERC), Darwin, NT, in a further effort at comprehensiveness. In this work, the author recognises 11 subfamilies, 76 confirmed genera and at least 832 species (including 200 to which a name cannot be given). Three species (Rhytidoponera castanea Crawley, R. quadriceps Clark, and Melophorus marius Forel), are resurrected from synonymy, three nominal subspecies (Camponotus claripes inverallensis Forel, Crematogaster laeviceps clarior Forel and Crematogaster queenslandica bipartita Forel) are raised to species status and 32 taxa (21 species and 11 subspecies) are reduced to synonymy as follows: Rhytidoponera rufonigra Clark under R. punctata (F. Smith); Rhytidoponera carinata Clark under R. castanea Crawley; Camponotus walkeri Forel under C. claripes Mayr; Camponotus churchetti McArthur under C. inverallensis Forel; Camponotus discors angustinodus Emery under C. consectator (F. Smith); Camponotus christmasensis McArthur under C. darlingtoni Wheeler; Camponotus minimus Crawley under C. insipidus Forel; Camponotus samueli McArthur under C. scratius Forel; Camponotus walkeri bardus Forel under C. michaelseni Forel; Camponotus spenceri Clark and C. nigroaeneus xuthus Emery under C. fieldeae Forel; Melophorus castanopus Heterick, Castalanelli & Shattuck under M. biroi Forel; Plagiolepis clarki impasta Wheeler under P. clarki Wheeler; Prolasius reticulatus McAreavey under P. wheeleri McAreavey; Stigmacros aciculata McAreavey, S. brooksi McAreavey, S. clarki McAreavey, S. extreminigra McAreavey, S. ferruginea McAreavey, S. glauerti McAreavey and S. sordida McAreavey under S. clivispina (Forel); Stigmacros armstrongi McAreavey under S. occidentalis (Crawley); Stigmacros minor McAreavey under S. pusilla McAreavey; Crematogaster frivola sculpticeps Forel under C. frivola Forel; Crematogaster laeviceps broomensis Forel and C. laeviceps chasei Forel under C. laeviceps F. Smith; Crematogaster pythia Forel under C. clarior Forel; Crematogaster dispar Forel and C. rufotestacea dentinasis Santschi under C. rufotestacea Mayr; Pheidole variabilis latigena Forel under P. ampla Forel; P. ampla perthensis Crawley and P. pyriformis Clark under P. bos Forel; P. proxima bombalensis Forel under P. rugosula Forel and Pheidole variabilis rugocciput Forel under P. variabilis Mayr. The junior synonyms Monomorium laeve nigrius Forel and Monomorium fraterculus Santschi are removed from synonymy under M. fieldi Forel and placed under M. antipodum Forel, and Tetramorium viehmeyeri venustus Wheeler is removed from synonymy under T. viehmeyeri and placed under T. impressum (Viehmeyer). Camponotus scratius nuntius Forel becomes a species inquirenda. Taxonomic keys to the ant subfamilies, genera and species found in Western Australia are provided, as are several new interpretations of sub-generic categories including those for the large genera Camponotus, Meranoplus and Stigmacros. A list of taxa treated as monophyletic in this volume, but which may contain hidden species complexes, is included as an appendix to this paper.