Paraparatrechina

Paraparatrechina is a genus of small ants in the subfamily Formicinae.[2] The genus contains 31 species distributed in the tropics of Africa, Asia and Australia.

Paraparatrechina
Paraparatrechina minutula
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Insecta
Order:
Hymenoptera
Family:
Formicidae
Subfamily:
Formicinae
Tribe:
Plagiolepidini
Genus:
Paraparatrechina

Type species
Paratrechina pallida
Donisthorpe, 1947
Diversity[1]
31 species

Distribution and habitat

The genus is restricted to the Paleotropics. Thirteen species are known from the Afrotropical and Malagasy regions, and twenty-five species and subspecies from Asia and Australia, although preliminary study suggests that there are many undescribed species.[3] Very little is known about the biology of Paraparatrechina in the Afrotropical and Malagasy regions. They have been found in a wide range of tropical habitats from rainforests to forest clearings in sifted leaf litter, rotten logs, under stones, and from beating vegetation and fogging samples from the forest canopy.[3]

Taxonomy

Paraparatrechina was first described as a subgenus of Paratrechina by Donisthorpe (1947).[4] LaPolla et al. (2010a) elevated the formerly synonymized subgenus to genus rank based on both morphological and molecular data.[5]

Description

Paraparatrechina are small (typically around 1–2 mm in total length) formicine ants, which often reflect a metallic iridescence (blue, purple and pink hues have been observed) under light microscopy. In darker species, the iridescence tends to be a darker bluish-purple, while lighter colored species either show little iridescence or reflect a more pinkish-purple hue. Paraparatrechina are usually easily distinguishable from other formicine genera by a unique mesosomal setal pattern: two pairs of erect setae on the pronotum, one pair on the mesonotum and one pair on the propodeum. Nylanderia, the genus most likely confused with Paraparatrechina, never possesses a pair of erect setae on the propodeum. The mandibles of Paraparatrechina also possess five teeth, while in Nylanderia six teeth are usually present.[3]

Species
  • Paraparatrechina albipes (Emery, 1899)
  • Paraparatrechina brunnella LaPolla, Cheng & Fisher, 2010
  • Paraparatrechina bufona (Wheeler, 1922)
  • Paraparatrechina butteli (Forel, 1913)
  • Paraparatrechina caledonica (Forel, 1902)
  • Paraparatrechina concinnata LaPolla, Cheng & Fisher, 2010
  • Paraparatrechina dichroa (Karavaiev, 1933)
  • Paraparatrechina emarginata (Forel, 1913)
  • Paraparatrechina foreli (Emery, 1914)
  • Paraparatrechina glabra (Forel, 1891)
  • Paraparatrechina gnoma LaPolla, Cheng & Fisher, 2010
  • Paraparatrechina iridescens (Donisthorpe, 1942)
  • Paraparatrechina kongming (Terayama, 2009)
  • Paraparatrechina koningsbergeri (Karavaiev, 1933)
  • Paraparatrechina lecamopteridis (Donisthorpe, 1941)
  • Paraparatrechina minutula (Forel, 1901)
  • Paraparatrechina myops LaPolla, Cheng & Fisher, 2010
  • Paraparatrechina nana (Santschi, 1928)
  • Paraparatrechina nettae (Forel, 1911)
  • Paraparatrechina oceanica (Mann, 1921)
  • Paraparatrechina ocellatula LaPolla, Cheng & Fisher, 2010
  • Paraparatrechina opaca (Emery, 1887)
  • Paraparatrechina oreias LaPolla, Cheng & Fisher, 2010
  • Paraparatrechina pallida (Donisthorpe, 1947)
  • Paraparatrechina pusillima (Emery, 1922)
  • Paraparatrechina sauteri (Forel, 1913)
  • Paraparatrechina splendida LaPolla, Cheng & Fisher, 2010
  • Paraparatrechina subtilis (Santschi, 1920)
  • Paraparatrechina tapinomoides (Forel, 1905)
  • Paraparatrechina umbranatis LaPolla, Cheng & Fisher, 2010
  • Paraparatrechina weissi (Santschi, 1910)
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References
  1. Bolton, B. (2014). "Paraparatrechina". AntCat. Retrieved 5 July 2014.
  2. "Genus: Paraparatrechina". antweb.org. AntWeb. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
  3. LaPolla, John S.; Cheng, Chiu H.; Fisher, Brian L. (2010b). "Taxonomic revision of the ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) genus Paraparatrechina in the Afrotropical and Malagasy Regions". Zootaxa. 2387: 1–27.
  4. Donisthorpe, H. (1947). "Some new ants from New Guinea". Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 14 (11): 183–197.
  5. LaPolla, J.S.; Brady, S.G.; Shattuck, S.O. (2010a). "Phylogeny and taxonomy of the Prenolepis genus-group of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)". Systematic Entomology. 35: 118–131. doi:10.1111/j.1365-3113.2009.00492.x.
  • This article incorporates text from a scholarly publication published under a copyright license that allows anyone to reuse, revise, remix and redistribute the materials in any form for any purpose: LaPolla, John S.; Cheng, Chiu H .; Fisher, Brian L. (2010). "Taxonomic revision of the ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) genus Paraparatrechina in the Afrotropical and Malagasy Regions". Zootaxa. 2387: 1–27. Please check the source for the exact licensing terms.
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