Crematogaster opuntiae, BUREN, 1968

Ward, Philip S. & Blaimer, Bonnie B., 2022, Taxonomy in the phylogenomic era: species boundaries and phylogenetic relationships among North American ants of the Crematogaster scutellaris group (Formicidae: Hymenoptera), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 194, pp. 893-937 : 919

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlab047

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:6144DD31-0F7B-4589-86A3-F40994452C9

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6352258

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/039987E6-FFE6-FFCA-FC89-7CD8FC73608F

treatment provided by

Plazi

scientific name

Crematogaster opuntiae
status

 

CREMATOGASTER OPUNTIAE BUREN, 1968 View in CoL , STAT. REV.

( FIG. 25 View Figures 25–30 )

Crematogaster opuntiae Buren, 1968: 120 View in CoL . Holotype worker, Santa Rita Experimental Range , Arizona (Buren) (LACM) (examined).

Junior synonym of C. vermiculata: Morgan & Mackay, 2017: 396 View in CoL ; here overturned.

Worker measurements (N = 10): HW 0.86–1.21, HL 0.80–1.11, SL 0.72–0.94, WL 0.89–1.27, MtFL 0.74– 1.05, MSC 1–3, A4SC 5–16, PP-SL/HW 0.14–0.19, CI 1.05–1.11, OI 0.26–0.29, SI 0.75–0.84, MtFL/HW 0.85– 0.89, SPL/HW 0.19–0.25, SPTD/HW 0.50–0.59.

Discussion: Crematogaster opuntiae bears little similarity or close phylogenetic relationship ( Fig. 1 View Figure 1 ) to the eastern, swamp-inhabiting species C. vermiculata , under which it was synonymized by Morgan & Mackay (2017). Among obvious differences, it has longer scapes and legs (SL/HL 0.83–0.90 and MtFL/HL 0.91–0.95 compared to SL/HL 0.75–0.82 and MtFL/HL 0.84–0.89 in C. vermiculata ), predominantly reticulate-foveolate sculpture on the promesonotum, more divergent propodeal spines (SPTD/ PPW 1.71–1.96 compared to 1.15–1.48 in C. vermiculata ) and lesser amounts of standing pilosity (MSC 1–3 and A4SC 5–16, compared to MSC 3–9 and A4SC 9–20 in C. vermiculata ). As noted by Buren (1968), C. opuntiae is similar to C. californica , differing primarily by the shinier head and by the more appressed pubescence on the scapes and head. The relationship of C. opuntiae to C. californica remains to be clarified – they may well prove to be conspecific. Crematogaster opuntiae has similar eye, scape, leg ( Fig. 42 View Figures 40–47 ) and propodeal spine dimensions as C. californica , and in our phylogenomic analyses the two are sister-taxa ( Fig. 1 View Figure 1 ).

Distribution and biology: Buren (1968) recorded C. opuntiae from desert and semi-desert regions of Arizona and considered C. californica to be restricted to California and Baja California. Both taxa are ground-nesting.

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Hymenoptera

Family

Formicidae

Genus

Crematogaster

Loc

Crematogaster opuntiae

Ward, Philip S. & Blaimer, Bonnie B. 2022
2022
Loc

Crematogaster opuntiae

Buren WF 1968: 120
1968
Darwin Core Archive (for parent article) View in SIBiLS Plain XML RDF