Temnothorax

Temnothorax
Temnothorax unifasciatus worker
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Myrmicinae
Tribe: Crematogastrini
Genus: Temnothorax
Mayr, 1861
Type species
Myrmica recedens
Nylander, 1856
Diversity[1]
365 species
Synonyms

Antillaemyrmex Mann, 1920
Chalepoxenus Menozzi, 1923
Croesomyrmex Mann, 1920
Dichothorax Emery, 1895
Epimyrma Emery, 1915[lower-alpha 1]
Icothorax Hamann & Klemm, 1967
Leonomyrma Arnol'di, 1968
Macromischa Roger, 1863
Myrafant Smith, M.R., 1950
Myrmammophilus Menozzi, 1925
Myrmetaerus Soudek, 1925[lower-alpha 1]
Myrmoxenus Ruzsky, 1902[lower-alpha 1]
Protomognathus Wheeler, W.M., 1905

Temnothorax is a genus of ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae. It contains more than 350 species.[4]

Biology

The workers of Temnothorax species are generally small. Colonies are typically monogynous, although facultative polygyny has been documented in several species. Colony populations are usually quite small, often with less than 100 workers. However, several studies have found colonies of some species to be widely dispersed with several to many satellite nests. Many species are arboreal, living within hollow stems, old beetle or termite galleries, or in galls. Temnothorax species appear to be trophic generalists, feeding on a wide variety of scavenged items, including the elaiosomes of seeds. None have been documented to be active or aggressive predators.[5]

Phylogenetics

Recent molecular phylogenetic studies show that the genera Chalepoxenus, Myrmoxenus and Protomognathus are nested within Temnothorax, and that the latter is distinct from the more distantly related genera Formicoxenus, Leptothorax and Harpagoxenus. Species in these 'satellite' genera live as social parasites within the nests of other species of Temnothorax.[5]

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Myrmoxenus (including its junior synonyms Epimyrma and Myrmetaerus) was synonymized under Temnothorax by Ward et al. (2015),[2] but the change was not accepted by Heinze et al. (2015) due to insufficient available data.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Bolton, B. (2014). "Temnothorax". AntCat. Retrieved 5 July 2014.
  2. ↑ Ward, Philip S.; Brady, Sean G.; Fisher, Brian L.; Schultz, Ted R. (July 2014). "The evolution of myrmicine ants: phylogeny and biogeography of a hyperdiverse ant clade (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)". Systematic Entomology. 40 (1). doi:10.1111/syen.12090. ISSN 1365-3113.
  3. ↑ Heinze, Jürgen; Buschinger, Alfred; Poettinger, Theo; Suefuji, Masaki (2015). "Multiple Convergent Origins of Workerlessness and Inbreeding in the Socially Parasitic Ant Genus Myrmoxenus". PLOS ONE. 10 (7): e0131023. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0131023. ISSN 1932-6203.
  4. ↑ "Genus: Temnothorax". antweb.org. AntWeb. Retrieved 5 July 2014.
  5. 1 2 Snelling, R.; Borowiec, M.; Prebus, M. (2014). "Studies on California ants: A review of the genus Temnothorax (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)". ZooKeys. 372 (372): 27–89. doi:10.3897/zookeys.372.6039. PMC 3909803Freely accessible. PMID 24493957.
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