Tetramorium tonganum Mayr, 1870

Yamane 1, Seiki, Hosoishi 2, Shingo & Ito 3, Fuminori, 2022, Japanese Tetramorium queens: identification key and species diagnoses (Hymenoptera, Formicidae, Myrmicinae), ZooKeys 1084, pp. 43-64 : 43

Tetramorium tonganum Mayr, 1870

Remarks.

This species is a well-known tramp distributed from New Caledonia through the Indo-Australian region to China and Japan and has been introduced to remote islands in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans ( AntWiki 2021). In Japan, it has been recorded from the Ogasawara Islands ( Bolton 1977; Terayama et al. 2014). We have no queen specimen of this species from Japan or from any other country. Santschi (1924) described the queen caste, based on a single specimen collected in Samoa. However, this specimen has only one ocellus and, according to his drawing, the eye is located too posteriorly on the head for a queen of Tetramorium . Bharti and Kumar (2012) described the queen caste of this species, based on material collected from Himachal Pradesh, India. According to their description (text and pictures), the queen of this species is recognised by the following combination of characteristics: i) anterior margin of clypeus entire, ii) no branched hairs present on body, iii) petiole in profile view with rounded anterodorsal and posterodorsal corners, iv) mid- and hind-tibiae without erect hairs, v) smooth lower portion of mesopleuron and vi) entirely smooth first gastral tergite.