Memoirs of the Queensland Museum | Nature 56 (2) © Queensland Museum 2013 PO Box 3300, South Brisbane 4101, Australia Phone 06 7 3840 7555 Fax 06 7 3846 1226 Email [email protected] Website www.qm.qld.gov.au National Library of Australia card number ISSN 0079-8835 NOTE Papers published in this volume and in all previous volumes of the Memoirs of the Queensland Museum may be reproduced for scientific research, individual study or other educational purposes. Properly acknowledged quotations may be made but queries regarding the republication of any papers should be addressed to the Director. Copies of the journal can be purchased from the Queensland Museum Shop. A Guide to Authors is displayed at the Queensland Museum web site www.qm.qld.gov.au A Queensland Government Project Typeset at the Queensland Museum Revision of Polyrhachis (Hagiomyrma) Wheeler, 1911 (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Formicinae) Rudolf J. KOHOUT Natural Environments Program, Queensland Museum, PO Box 3300, South Brisbane, Qld 4101, Australia. Email: [email protected] Citation: Kohout, R.J. 2013 06 30. Revision of Polyrhachis (Hagiomyrma) Wheeler, 1911 (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Formicinae). Memoirs of the Queensland Museum – Nature 56(2): 487–577. Brisbane. ISSN 0079-8835. Accepted: 11 January 2013 ABSTRACT The subgenus Hagiomyrma Wheeler, 1911, of the genus Polyrhachis Fr. Smith, 1857, is revised. Forty-eight species are recognised, including sixteen previously described species: P. ammon (Fabricius), P. ammonoeides Roger, P. angusta Forel, P. crawleyi Forel, P. denticulata Karavaiev, P. lachesis Forel, P. lydiae Forel, P. metella Fr. Smith, P. paxilla Fr. Smith, P. penelope Forel, P. schenkii Forel, P. semiaurata Mayr, P. semiobscura Donisthorpe, P. thusnelda Forel, P. trapezoidea Mayr and P. tubifera Forel. Thirty-two species are described as new: P. anderseni, P. archeri, P. aurora, P. bohemia, P. brisbanensis, P. brutella, P. burwelli, P. callima, P. capeyorkensis, P. clarki, P. conciliata, P. cracenta, P. darlingtoni, P. diversa, P. dougcooki, P. electra, P. elegantula, P. feehani, P. hoffmanni, P. injinooi, P. isolata, P. melanura, P. nourlangie, P. pilbara, P. placida, P. seducta, P. stricta, P. tanami, P. tenebra, P. uncaria, P. vernoni and P. weiri. Six species- groups are recognised: P. ammon-group, metella-group, penelope-group, schenkii-group, trapezoidea-group and tubifera-group. Three species, Polyrhachis sokolova Forel, P. trophima Fr. Smith and P. xiphias Fr. Smith, formerly placed in Hagiomyrma are excluded and placed in different subgenera. A key based on the worker caste is provided. All species are illustrated and their known distributions and biology and ecology summarised. □ Polyrhachis, Hagiomyrma, Australia, New Guinea, systematics, new species, distribution. This is the fourth in a series of papers reviewing five more species that were later considered the Australian ants of the genus Polyrhachis members of the subgenus Hagiomyrma. In the (Kohout 2006, 2010, 2012). It deals with the following years (1866, 1870 and 1876) Gustav species of the subgenus Hagiomyrma which is Mayr described a further thirteen Polyrhachis confined to the Australasian Region with the species and subspecific forms, mostly from the majority of species restricted to Australia. In material in the Godeffroy Museum in Hamburg, terms of the Australian fauna, Hagiomyrma is the two of which now belong to Hagiomyrma. third most speciose subgenus of Polyrhachis with However, the work of Auguste Forel had the only Chariomyrma and Campomyrma containing greatest impact on the taxonomy of the ammon- more Australian species. group, that later (see Wheeler, 1911) become In 1775 Johann Christian Fabricius described known as the subgenus Hagiomyrma. Except Formica ammon, one of the first Australian ants for two species, one he described in 1886 collected at Botany Bay by Joseph Banks during from Darnley Island in Torres Strait and the the Endeavour voyage of discovery under other in 1907 from the north-west of Western Captain James Cook. However, it was not until Australia, all the specimens he worked on were almost a century later that Frederick Smith (1860 collected and sent to him by Gilbert Turner, a and 1863) and Julius Roger (1863) described retired farmer from Mackay in Queensland Memoirs of the Queensland Museum | Nature 2013 56(2) www.qm.qld.gov.au 487 Kohout (see Turner, 1897). From this material, between this infers that this was the only specimen 1895 and 1916, Forel described a vast number available and no syntype or paratype specimens of new species and subspecies of Australian ants, are known to exist. including ten which were considered members of Names of the most frequently listed the subgenus Hagiomyrma. Only two more species, collectors are abbreviated as follows: ANA P. denticulata Karavaiev, 1927, and P. semiobscura = A.N. Andersen; BDH = B.D. Hoffmann; Donisthorpe, 1944, were later described, raising CJB = C.J. Burwell; DJC = D.J. Cook; DKY = the number of Hagiomyrma species to twenty- D.K. Yeates; GIT = G.I. Thompson; H&C = H. two. This situation remained unchanged until Heatwole & E. Cameron; JDM = J.D. Majer; Kohout (1988, 1994) synonymised the subspecies JEF = J.E. Feehan; JPH = J.& P. Hasenpusch; P. ammon angustata Forel and P. sokolova degener PMR = P.M. Room; RJK = R.J. Kohout; BBL = Forel with their nominal forms and P. chalchas B.B. Lowery; GBM = G.B. Monteith; SKR = S.K. Forel with P. ammonoeides Roger, reducing the Robson; RWT = R.W. Taylor; TAW = T.A. Weir. number of species to nineteen. Finally, with the Other abbreviations used in specimen data are: transfer of three species to different subgenera Arch. = Archipelago; Bch = Beach; c. = about (L. (see below), I consider only sixteen previously circa); CALM = Department of Conservation described species to be valid members of the and Land Management, Western Australia; subgenus Hagiomyrma. Ck = Creek; CURT = Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia; DPI MATERIAL AND METHODS = Department of Primary Industries; Hmsd = Homestead; I. = Island; Is = Islands; Mt = Photographs of specimens were taken with a Mount; Mtn = Mountain; Mts = Mountains; NP digital camera attached to a stereomicroscope. = National Park; nr = near; Pen. = Peninsula; The images were then processed using Helicon Pltn = Plantation; PNG = Papua New Guinea; Focus (Mac OSX version) or Auto-Montage Prov. = Province; Pt = Point; R. = River; Ra. = (Syncroscopy, Division of Synoptics Ltd, USA) Range; Rd = Road; rf. = rainforest; SF = State and Adobe Photoshop CS2 (Adobe Systems Forest; Stn = Station; Tbld = Tableland; TERC = Inc., USA) software. Unless otherwise indicated, CSIRO, Tropical Ecosystems Research Centre, illustrations are of the holotypes of the new Darwin, Northern Territory; w = worker/s; species or critically compared specimens (mostly x-ing = crossing. Australian states and territories topotypes) of previously described species. are abbreviated as follows: ACT = Australian The use of the terms “New Guinea”, “New Capital Territory; NSW = New South Wales; Britain”, “New Ireland” and “Bismarck NT = Northern Territory; QLD = Queensland; Archipelago” alone indicate the biogeographic SA = South Australia; TAS = Tasmania; VIC = delimitation of these regions regardless of their Victoria; WA = Western Australia. current political boundaries. New Guinean Abbreviations for institutions and localities at which ants were collected by the depositories (with the names of co-operating Bishop Museum’s collectors were checked curators) are: AMNH – American Museum against that institution’s locality list (BPBM, of Natural History, New York, NY, USA. (Dr 1966, unpublished). In some cases the latitude J.M. Carpenter); AMSA – Australian Museum, and longitude co-ordinates and altitudes of Sydney, NSW, Australia (Drs D. Britton, D. localities are only approximate. Smith); ANIC – Australian National Insect Lists of synonymies presented here are not Collection, CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, always comprehensive and for full synonymic Canberra, ACT, Australia (Drs S.O. Shattuck, citations see Bolton (1995), Bolton et al. (2007) R.W. Taylor, N. Barnett); BMNH – The Natural and Dorow (1995). Publication dates and History Museum, London, UK (Barry Bolton, the spelling of species’ and authors’ names K. Goodger, S. Ryder); BPBM – Bernice P. generally follow Bolton et al. (2007). Where a Bishop Museum, Honolulu, HI, U.S.A. (Dr holotype specimen is mentioned as ‘unique’, G.M. Nishida, K.T. Arakaki); CASC – California 488 Memoirs of the Queensland Museum | Nature 2013 56(2) Revision of Polyrhachis (Hagiomyrma) Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA., (maximum measurable length of the head U.S.A. (Dr B.L. Fisher, K.J. Ribardo); CURT in perfect full face view, measured from the – Curtin University of Technology, Perth, anteriormost point of the clypeal border or WA, Australia (Drs J.D. Majer, B.E. Heterick); teeth, to the posteriormost point of the occipital HNHM – Hungarian Natural History Museum, margin); HW – Head width (width of the head Budapest, Hungary (Dr J. Papp); IZAS – Institute in perfect full face view, measured immediately of Zoology, Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, in front of eyes); CI – Cephalic index (HW Kiev, Ukraine (Dr A.G. Radchenko); MCZC – x 100/HL); SL – Scape length (length of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard antennal scape, excluding the condyla); SI – University, Cambridge, MA., USA (Dr S.P. Scape index (SL x 100/HW); PW – Pronotal Cover); MHNG – Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle,