ASIAN
MYRMECOLOGY
Image: François Brassard
DOI: 10.20362/am.016008
Asian Myrmecology 16: 016008 (1-11)
article first published online: 5/December/2023
Discovery of the formerly Japan-endemic Ponera kohmoku Terayama, 1996 (Formicidae, Ponerinae) in Southeast China, and implications for understanding the ecology and biogeography of the species
TSZ KIN CALVIN LEUNG1,2, CHI MAN LEONG1,3, MATTHEW T. HAMER1 & BENOIT GUÉNARD1
Abstract:
Ponera kohmoku is a species described in 1996 from Yaku-shima Island, and all knownrecords to date have been limited to the southern portion of Japan. Here, new records of P. kohmoku are reported from Guangdong, Guangxi and Hong Kong in China, adding a fourth Ponera species to Hong Kong and Guangxi as well as the first nominal record of this genus to the Guangdong myrmecofauna. By integrating ecological information from past literature records of P. kohmoku with these new records from Southeast China, P. kohmoku is suggested to be a forest understory generalist in terms of habitat preference. The disjunct distribution of the species in southern Japan, Guangdong, Guangxi and Hong Kong raises the question about the biogeographic history of the species and the genus. Here, we propose and evaluate two hypotheses for such disjunct distribution: 1) the extinction of population from most parts of eastern mainland China, and 2) knowledge gap caused by the under sampling of cryptobiotic ants in mainland China.
Keywords:
biogeography, ecology, distribution, biodiversity
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TSZ KIN CALVIN LEUNG1,2, CHI MAN LEONG1,3, MATTHEW T. HAMER1 & BENOIT GUÉNARD1
Abstract:
Ponera kohmoku is a species described in 1996 from Yaku-shima Island, and all knownrecords to date have been limited to the southern portion of Japan. Here, new records of P. kohmoku are reported from Guangdong, Guangxi and Hong Kong in China, adding a fourth Ponera species to Hong Kong and Guangxi as well as the first nominal record of this genus to the Guangdong myrmecofauna. By integrating ecological information from past literature records of P. kohmoku with these new records from Southeast China, P. kohmoku is suggested to be a forest understory generalist in terms of habitat preference. The disjunct distribution of the species in southern Japan, Guangdong, Guangxi and Hong Kong raises the question about the biogeographic history of the species and the genus. Here, we propose and evaluate two hypotheses for such disjunct distribution: 1) the extinction of population from most parts of eastern mainland China, and 2) knowledge gap caused by the under sampling of cryptobiotic ants in mainland China.
Keywords:
biogeography, ecology, distribution, biodiversity
Get PDF (3.0 MB) :
1School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Kadoorie Biological Sciences Building,Pok Fu Lam Road, Hong Kong SAR
2Present address: Asian School of the Environment, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
3Present address: Department of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College, Zhuhai, China
*Corresponding author: zeroben@gmail.com
