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S Spiny Ants (Polyrhachis) closely matched by their related ecology and nesting habits. Simon Robson School of Life & Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia Morphological Diversity Petiolar spines are present in the workers of most Diversity, Distribution, and Evolutionary species, accounting for the genus name (Greek: History poly ¼ many, rhachis ¼ ridge or spine). The position and size of the spines, however, varies With over 700 described species divided into widely within the genus. Most Polyrhachis pos- 13 subgenera and numerous species groups, the sess spines on either part or all of the mesosoma formicine ant genus Polyrhachis represents one of (on either the first or last segments: the pronotum the most morphologically and behaviorally and propodeum) as well as the gaster. Within the diverse genus of ants. These medium-sized ants Cyrtomyrma subgenus, spines are predominantly are often recognizable by the presence of spines, found on the last segment of the mesosoma (the their colorful integument, the lack of a meta pleu- propodeum) and the gaster, while Chariomyrma ral gland, and the enlarged first segment of the always possess spines on the first and last seg- gaster, which can be as long as ½ to ¾ of the ments of the mesosoma (pronotum and pro- length of the gaster as a whole. Restricted to podeum) as well as the gaster. The subgenus Old-World biogeographic regions, the genus Polyrhachis is unique in also possessing meso- achieves its greatest diversity in the Indo- notal spines, as well as petiolar spines of such Malayan, Oriental and Australasian regions extraordinary length that can be as long as the [2]. Molecular evidence suggests the group orig- entire gaster of the ant itself (Fig. 1). inated in SE Asia approx. 58 million years ago, The color of the Polyrhachis integument is dispersing once to Africa and several times to highly variable. Many are covered with a metallic Australia [8]. gold or silver pubescence but there are spectacular With the exception of the polyphyletic subge- examples of gold, silver, black, red, green, and nus Myrmhopla (a recognized “waste basket even blue workers (Fig. 2). The diversity of group” [2]), each of the remaining 12 subgenera worker coloration is expanded even further with are morphologically distinct and easily recogniz- variation in the actual region of the worker body able, a consistency at the subgeneric level that is that is colored. Even for species with similar col- oration, the actual region of the body color can © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 C. Starr (ed.), Encyclopedia of Social Insects, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90306-4_115-1 2 Spiny Ants (Polyrhachis) vary from the head, the mesosoma, the petiole, or Nesting Sites and Structural Diversity various combinations of the three (Fig. 3). It is no wonder that Edward O. Wilson refers to Poly- Nesting habits and nest material are highly rhachis as “the birds of paradise of the ant world.” diverse, ranging from subterranean ant nests in the soil to lignicolous, lithocolous, and arboreal nests. The diversity of nesting locations is matched with a similar diversity of nesting mate- rial, with many species, even terrestrial nesting ones, including additional material into the nest itself [10]. Polyrhachis just seem to like building! Species within the Campomyrma, Chariomyrma, and Hagiomyrma subgenera typically nest within the soil but often include plant material around the nest. The mulga ant P. (Campomyrma) macropa decorates the crater entrance to its nest with a very distinctive layer of phyllodes from the mulga plant Acacia aneura (Fig. 4a). Species within the Cyrtomyrma subgenus appear to nest exclusively in arboreal habits with nests made from plant Spiny Ants (Polyrhachis), Fig. 1 P. (Polyrhachis) material lined with silk. This silk is produced sp. with extensive pronotal, mesonotal, and petiolar spines. predominantly by their own larvae (Fig. 4b), but (Drawing by Rudolf J. Kohout) some species are known to also include spider silk in their nests [3]. P. (Myrmhopla) dives can form Spiny Ants (Polyrhachis), Fig. 2 Color variation in (Chariomyrma) hookeri,(d) P. (Cyrtomyrma) australis,(e) Polyrhachis. (a) P. (Polyrhachis) sp., (b) Appropriately P. (Myrmhopla) tubifex. (Photos (a) by Steve Shattuck, (b– named P. (Chariomyrma) senilis with a silver head, (c) P. e) by Ajay Narendra) Spiny Ants (Polyrhachis) 3 Spiny Ants (Polyrhachis), Fig. 3 Variation in which (Hedomyrma) machaon with gold on the rear segment of body segments are colored. (a) P. (Hedomyrma) cupreata the mesosoma only, (d) P.(Chariomyrma)nr.aurea with with an entirely gold body, (b) P. (Hagiomyrma) semi- only a golden gaster. (Photos by Ajay Narendra) aurata, with gold head and mesosoma, (c) P. ▶ supercolonies with multiple large arboreal nests Perhaps the most unusual nesting habits are often constructed from plant material only displayed by P. (Chariomyrma) sokolova who (Fig. 4c). The formation of nests within hollow form subterranean nests in mangroves which can twigs and under bark is common in the be inundated by high tides (Fig. 4f)[11], an Hedomyrma subgenus, but a single species within undescribed species of Polyrhachis from Borneo the typically ground-nesting Hagiomyrma, which constructs arboreal silk nests that perfectly P. thusnelda, form nests on the sides of rock mimic hollow twigs (Fig. 4g), and the formation walls comprised of such diverse material as fresh by P. (Myrmothrinax) nepenthicola of nests kangaroo dung or even the mud from wasp nests within the pitcher of carnivorous pitcher plants. (Fig. 4d). Neighboring rock-wall nests of Nests are constructed on the inner wall of the P. (Hedomyrma) turneri are comprised of silk, pitcher, above the level of the liquid, with a hole but rather than using their own larvae as a resource in the wall of the pitcher providing access to the the silk is stolen from the egg cases of spiders nest from the external foraging areas (Fig. 4h) (Fig. 4e)[9]. This mass of silk in turn appears to [7]. Unlike the ▶ carpenter ant Camponotus become a resource for a wider community of schmitzi [1], there is no suggestion that spiders who then chose to inhabit and deposit P. nepenthicola actually swims and forages in their own egg sacs in the walls of the ant’s nest. the digestive liquid of the pitcher plant. Unlike the ▶ weaver ants Oecophylla,noPoly- rhachis species are known to form chains to manipulate the nest substrate [5]. 4 Spiny Ants (Polyrhachis) Spiny Ants (Polyrhachis), Fig. 4 Variation in the nesting mud from a wasp’s nest, (e) A soft P. (Hedomyrma) turneri habits of Polyrhachis.(a) Crater-like nest entrance of the nest on the side of a rock wall constructed from the silk of subterranean-nesting mulga ant P. (Campomyrma) spider egg cases, (f) Nests of the mangrove nesting P. macropa, decorated with the phyllodes of the mulga, (b) (Chariomyrma) sokolova submerged 1 m under spring A typical arboreal Polyrhachis nest, showing the outer tides, (g) Camouflaged “twig” nest of Polyrhachis layer of plant material and the inner layer of larval silk (Myrmhopla) sp. constructed from larval silk, (h) Carton (subgenera Cyrtomyrma and many Myrmhopla), (c) nest of P. (Myrmothrinax) nepenthicola inside a pitcher A large arboreal nest (approximately 1 m in length) of the plant; the ants exit the nest via a hole in the wall of the supercolonial P (Myrmhopla) dives often composed of pitcher. (Photos (a) and (h) by Rudolf J. Kohout, (b–f)by only plant material, (d) P. (Hagiomyrma) thusnelda nest Simon Robson, (g) by Steve Shattuck) on the side of a rock wall constructed almost entirely of The Evolution of Nest-Weaving Behavior production, with the transition to subterranean nesting and the loss of nest-weaving occurring in The diversity of nesting habits and the degree to the more derived species. However, arboreality which larval silk is (or is not) incorporated into the and nest-weaving has been partially regained on nests is similar to that of ants as a whole, provid- at least two occasions. Two nonweaving subterra- ing a valuable opportunity to examine the evolu- nean species have reverted to arboreal nesting tion of these behaviors within a single genus. habits (without regaining the use of silk in their Phylogenetic studies suggest that despite ear- nests), while a third subterranean species lier predictions relating the evolution of (P. thurneri) constructs silk nests on the sides of arboreality with the use of larval silk in nests and rocks (using silk from spiders and not from its the loss of pupal cocoons, arboreality and larval own larvae). While Polyrhachis appear to have silk use appear to be the ancestral state for the “come down from the trees” and abandoned the genus [12]. Basal Polyrhachis were arboreal nest use of larval silk, in an evolutionary sense later weaving species that used larval silk in nest species appear to have decided that it wasn’t Spiny Ants (Polyrhachis) 5 Spiny Ants (Polyrhachis), Fig. 5 The swimming ant P. (Chariomyrma) sokolova. (Photo © Mark Moffat) Spiny Ants (Polyrhachis), Fig. 6 Ant taxonomy is a good thing worth the effort and subsequently returned to an Larvae pupate without cocoons in Cyrtomyrma arboreal life-style, albeit with the loss of larval silk and Myrmatopa but cocoons are produced in the nest walls. remainder of subgenera [11]. Polydomous colo- nies of the arboreal nesting and silk-weaving Polyrhachis (Cyrtomyrma) robsoni contain numerous dimorphic queens [13], workers of the Behavioral and Ecological Diversity mangrove nesting P. (Chariomyrma) sokolova readily swim across the surface of water left The morphological and behavioral diversity of the behind by receding tides (Fig. 5)[11] and species genus is matched by the diversity of sociobiology of the arboreal-nesting subgenera Myrmatopa and and ecology and the genus as a whole represents a Myrmathrinax make a loud highly synchronized rich source of studies in social insect biology.

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