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Guide to the Ants of South-Western Australia

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Guide to the Ants of South-Western Australia Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement No. 76 A Guide to the Ants of South-western Australia Brian E. Heterick Records of the Western Australian Museum The Records of the Western Australian Museum publishes the results of research into all branches of natural sciences and social and cultural history, primarily based on the collections of the Western Australian Museum and on research carried out by its staff members. Collections and research at the Western Australian Museum are centred on Earth and Planetary Sciences, Zoology, Anthropology and History. In particular the following areas are covered: systematics, ecology, biogeography and evolution of living and fossil organisms; mineralogy; meteoritics; anthropology and archaeology; history; maritime archaeology; and conservation. Western Australian Museum Perth Cultural Centre, James Street, Perth, Western Australia, 6000 Mail: Locked Bag 49, Welshpool DC, Western Australia 6986 Telephone: (08) 9212 3700 Facsimile: (08) 9212 3882 Email: [email protected] Minister for Culture and The Arts The Hon. John Day BSc, BDSc, MLA Chair of Trustees Mr Tim Ungar BEc, MAICD, FAIM Acting Executive Director Ms Diana Jones MSc, BSc, Dip.Ed Editors Dr Mark Harvey BSC, PhD Dr Paul Doughty BSc(Hons), PhD Editorial Board Dr Alex Baynes MA, PhD Dr Alex Bevan BSc(Hons), PhD Ms Ann Delroy BA(Hons), MPhil Dr Bill Humphreys BSc(Hons), PhD Dr Moya Smith BA(Hons), Dip.Ed. PhD The Records of the Western Australian Museum is published approximately three times per year. A series of Supplements is also produced. The Records are available for sale and exchange, the current price being $11 plus postage per part. Each volume comprises four Parts. Subscriptions can be taken out for whole volumes at a rate of $33 plus postage. Supplements can be purchased from the Western Australian Museum Bookshop. Prices on request. Prices include GST. Published by the Western Australian Museum © Western Australian Museum, August 2009. ISSN 0313 122X ISBN 978-1-920843-43-4 Cover: Exposed gallery of native carpenter ants (Camponotus claripes nudimalis Forel) in trunk of red- flowering gum Corymbia( calophylla (Lindl.) K. D. Hill & L. A. S. Johnson) (B. E. Heterick) PrEfACE Increasingly, invertebrates are being used as indicators of environmental health in various native and altered ecosystems throughout Australia. Among invertebrates that can be utilised in this way, ants are a very suitable indicator group because they are abundant and have high biodiversity, are relatively well known taxonomically, are easy to collect and identify, and are sufficiently robust to be able to be handled without special preparation. They are also reasonably sensitive to environmental disturbance. Assessing the progress of revegetation of minesites is one of the more common applications where ants can be used as indicators of success. However, to this point of time, there has been no single authoritative reference source for the ant species found in Western Australia, including those collected in rehabilitated minesites and other programmes involving sampling of ants. This present work attempts a comprehensive overview of all the described ant species currently recognised from the south-west of Western Australia, specifically, the South-West Botanical Province (a phytogeographic zone). Also included are the many undescribed species, or those of uncertain taxonomic status, recognised by the Curtin University of Technology. The latter are indicated in this monograph by voucher numbers. Taxonomic keys will enable an enquirer to arrive at subfamily, genus and species name (if described) for any particular worker ant specimen. Although this volume covers the ants of South-Western Australia, many of these species are also present in the Pilbara, where Rio Tinto's iron ore group has most of its mining interests. We are therefore proud to be associated with the sponsorship of this important work. Warwick Smith Managing director – Expansion Projects Rio Tinto TABlE of ConTEnTS Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................................... 7 Botanical Districts within the SWBP in relation to the ant fauna............................................................................. 8 Nomenclature .................................................................................................................................................................. 9 What’s in a name? ........................................................................................................................................................... 9 What makes an ant an ant? .......................................................................................................................................... 12 Where and how do ants live in the SWBP? ............................................................................................................... 13 Pest ants and tramp ants .............................................................................................................................................. 14 Ants as bioindicators .................................................................................................................................................... 15 Key to the ant subfamilies of the South-West Botanical Province ......................................................................... 16 Plates ............................................................................................................................................................................... 20 Key to the ant genera of the South-West Botanical Province .................................................................................. 28 Key to the ant species of the South-West Botanical Province ................................................................................. 42 A note on taxonomic decisions made in this work .................................................................................................. 42 Species key and discussion of species ........................................................................................................................ 43 Appendix 1: Ant species and morphospecies recorded from the SWBP ............................................................ 180 Appendix 2: Ant species and morphospecies recorded from the SWBP placed by botanical district .................................................................................................................................. 187 Glossary of terms used in this work ......................................................................................................................... 198 References ..................................................................................................................................................................... 202 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................................................... 206 Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement No. 76 (2009) A Guide to the Ants of South-western Australia B. E. Heterick Department of Environmental and Aquatic Sciences, Curtin University of Technology, Bentley, Western Australia 6102, Australia. E-mail: [email protected] 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 last- mentioned 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 spe- cies). 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 vari- ety 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 to- gether make up the South-West Botanical Province
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