Nylanderia guatemalensis (LaPolla and Kallal, 2019)

Williams, Jason L., Zhang, Y. Miles, LaPolla, John S., Schultz, Ted R. & Lucky, Andrea, 2022, Phylogenomic Delimitation of Morphologically Cryptic Species in Globetrotting Nylanderia (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) Species Complexes, Insect Systematics and Diversity 6 (1), pp. 1-15 : 6

Nylanderia guatemalensis Complex

The guatemalensis complex, thought to be comprised of N. guatemalensis and N. steinheili , is nonmonophyletic in the global ML phylogeny ( Fig. 2). A strongly supported clade including N. guatemalensis and as many as eight morphospecies from South America (N. spp. FG02, FG07, FG03, Ven4, Col2, Per3, Bra1, and FG01) is more closely related to the fulva complex than to N. steinheili . A clade comprised of N. steinheili and three morphospecies native/endemic to parts of the Caribbean ( N. coveri , N. myops , and N. JKW1) is more distantly related to the rest of the guatemalensis complex.

In contrast, the unphased ( Fig. 4A) and phased ( Fig. 4B) MSC phylogenies both provide strong support for the monophyly of the guatemalensis complex, with N. guatemalensis most closely related to South American species. Nylanderia steinheili is strongly supported as belonging to a clade with two Caribbean morphospecies ( N. coveri and N. sp. JKW1). Collectively, the guatemalensis complex is strongly supported as sister to the fulva complex. Across all analyses, N. guatemalensis and N. steinheili are strongly supported as independent, monophyletic species that are not sister taxa.