ASIAN
MYRMECOLOGY

DOI: 10.20362/am.009016
Asian Myrmecology 9: e009016 (1-13)
article first published online 16/November/2017

A new species of the ant genus Strongylognathus (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) from Inner Mongolia, with notes on the species reported from China

ALEXANDER G. RADCHENKO^1*, YICHEN ZHANG² & JÜRGEN HEINZE³

Abstract:

A new species, Strongylognathus dao sp. n. is described based on all three castes from Inner Mongolia, China. It belongs to the S. huberi species-group and differs from the related species S. koreanus Pisarski by the presence of standing hairs on the temples and genae, by the distinctly darker color of the body, and also by the relatively shorter, higher and wider postpetiole. Its workers differ from S. christophi Emery by the longer head and by the much less developed longitudinal rugosity on the sides of mesosoma. Besides this, queens (gynes) of S. dao are much smaller than those of S. christophi. In this study, we describe what appears to have been an incomplete raid of S. dao on a neighboring Tetramorium tsushimae Emery colony. A brief review of Chinese Strongylognathus species is provided. We believe that previous records of S. karawajewi Pisarski and S. cheliferus Radchenko from China were based on misidentifications and propose to remove these two species from the list of Chinese ants.

Keywords:

Strongylognathus dao, Tetramorium, dulotic ants, key, taxonomy

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¹Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, B. Khmelnitskogo str., 15, Kiev-30, 01030, Ukraine

²High School Affiliated to Beijing Normal University, No.18 Nan Xin Hua Street, 100052, Beijing, China

³Zoology / Evolutionary Biology, University of Regensburg, 93040 Regensburg, Germany

*Corresponding author: rad@izan.kiev.ua, agradchenko@hotmail.com