Cardiocondyla paranuda Seifert 2003

Seifert, Bernhard, Okita, Ichiro & Heinze, Jürgen, 2017, A taxonomic revision of the Cardiocondyla nuda group (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), Zootaxa 4290 (2), pp. 324-356 : 346-349

Cardiocondyla paranuda Seifert 2003

Tab. 2, Figs. 14 – 16

Cardiocondyla paranuda Seifert 2003: 246 . Holotype worker: alledgedly Tunisia, Chabania [ SMNG, antweb.org images of specimen FOCOL 0739 ] (examined) . Holotype labels " TUNISIA: Medinine- 32 km SE Chabania- 6 km NW leg. H.Heatwole 1976“, " Holotype Cardiocondyla paranuda Seifert ", "GBIF-D/ FoCol 0 739 specimen and label data documented", and " Seifert (2017): Confusion of label by Collingwood. Terra Typica by morphometric analysis most probably Australia".

Material examined A total of 30 nest samples with 52 workers were subject to NUMOBAT investigation.

Australia: Australia: without site and date, holotype of C. paranuda ; New South Wales: Barham, 1960.03.23, [-35.62, 144.15] ; New South Wales: Belanglo State Forest , 1991.02.16, [-34.53, 150.25] ; New South Wales: Black Mountains , 1997.xx.xx, [-35.28, 149.09] ; New South Wales: Broken Hill, Parkland, 1971.05.18, [-31.96, 141,46] ; New South Wales: Fowlers Gap, 1979.02.19, [-31.02, 146.60] ; New South Wales: Lake Menindee , 1971.05.19, [- 32.32, 142.40]; Sydney, Concord, 1960.05.0 1, [-33.86, 151.10] ; Northern Territory: Alice Springs, Kunoth Paddock, 1974.10.22, No I, [-23.517, 133.583] ; Northern Territory: Alice Springs, Kunoth Paddock, 1974.10.24, No I, [-23.517, 133.583] ; Northern Territory: Ayers Rock, 1981.10.xx, [-25.35, 131.03] ; Northern Territory: SW Katherine, Manaulloo, 1978.04.xx, [-14.5, 132.2] , Northern Territory: Simpson Gap, 1972.xx.xx, [-23.71, 133.71] ; Northern Territory: Ti Tree Well- 11 km S, 1962.10.28, [-22.26, 133.38] ; Northern Territory: above Baroalba springs, 1972.11.17, [-12.47, 132.51] ; Northern Territory: Yulara , 2014.07.27, No AUS39 (GenBank LT718213 ) [- 25.24361, 130.98639] ; Queensland: Chilcott Island, 1967.08.xx, [-16.95, 149.91] ; Queensland: Chilcott Island, 1967.08.xx, [-16.25, 150.00] ; Queensland: Coongie- 25 km S, 1975.08.xx, [-27.5, 140.0] ; Queensland: Cunnamulla, 1974.09.17, [-28.070, 145.67] ; Queensland: Woodstock- 52 km S, 1976.04.11, [-20.07, 146.82] ; South Australia: Alton Down, Birdsville- 48 km SW, 1972.xx.xx, [-26.28, 139.10] ; South Australia: Flinders Ranges, Elatina Hut 1 km NW, [-31.35, 138.63] ; South Australia: Flinders Ranges, Westwloona- 14 km WSW, [-31.50, 138.50] ; South Australia: Flinders Range , 1999.01.0 6, (GenBank DQ 023068 ) [-31.37, 138.63] ; Western Australia : Derby City, 1982.xx.xx, [-17.31, 123.62] ; Western Australia: Eurardy station , 2015.02.04/11, [-27.531, 114.667] ; Western Australia: Perth: Kings Park, 1969.12.14, [-31.96, 115.87] ; Western Australia: Perth , pre 1965 (coll. J. Clark), [-31.97, 115.840].

Redescription of worker caste. Worker ( Tab. 2, Figs. 14 – 16 ): Head elongated, CL/CW 1.214. Postocular distance rather large, PoOc/CL 0.463. Eyes relatively small, EYE 0.234. Frontal carinae immediately caudal of the FRS level parallel or very slightly converging. Foveolae on vertex without interspaces, deeply impressed, with 13 – 19 µm diameter, and with an inner corona (a flat tubercle) of 7 – 9 µm diameter having the base of a decumbent pubescence hair in its center. This type of sculpture can also be described as a strongly sculptured microreticulum. Longitudinal sculpture on vertex often completely absent ( Fig. 15 ). Weak semicircular rugae are found around the antennal fossae. Lateral mesosoma on whole surface regularly and strongly microreticulate-foveolate; longitudinal sculpture except for 4 – 6 weak and short carinulae on metapleuron completely absent ( Fig. 16 ); dorsal mesosoma irregularly reticulate-foveolate-shagrinate. Sides of petiole with a deeply sculptured microreticulum, dorsal petiole and postpetiole with a weak and shallowly sculptured microreticulum. Cuticular surface of first gaster tergite rather smooth and shining but on its whole surface with a well-developed microreticulum ( Fig. 14 ). The pubescence hairs on gaster tergites are the shortest within the C. nuda group, PLG/CS is only 5.06%. Metanotal depression very shallow, MGr/CS 1.28%. Propodeal spines short but clearly longer than in the C. mauritanica species complex. Dorsal propodeum sloping down to base of spines under an angle of 20°. Petiole node slightly longer than wide. Postpetiole in dorsal view with only suggestedly angulate sides and straight anterior margin that is slightly shorter than posterior margin; postpetiolar sternite bulging, without any protrusions but on each side with a suggested paramedian, longitudinal carina. Head, mesosoma, waist and appendages often amber-colored, gaster significantly darker—this is the most frequently observed coloration but populations with dark headed specimens or such with concolorous amber specimens do occur. For morphometric data of 52 workers see Tab. 2.

Geographic range. Australia, only species of the whole genus Cardiocondyla occurring in inner Australia.

Diagnosis. see key. The very short gastral pubescence is the most obvious difference to the sister species C. atalanta .

Biology. C. paranuda is apparently well adapted to arid and very hot climate and the only species of the whole genus Cardiocondyla occurring in inner Australia. This is demonstrated by significant differences between C. atalanta and C.paranuda in the continentality of the sites. The mean distance from sea shore and mean annual rainfall are 23 ± 51 [0,252] km and 1430 ± 716 [500, 4500] mm in 27 sites of C. atalanta and 329 ± 332 [0, 904] km and 588 ± 385 [150, 1250] mm in 27 sites of C. paranuda . These differences are significantly different in both sea shore distance (ANOVA F1,52=22.39, p<0.0005) and annual rainfall (ANOVA F1,52=28.90, p<0.0005). As yet only foragers have been collected and colony structure, male morphology, and behavior are unknown.

Comments. There is a serious problem with the site documentation in the holotype of C. paranuda . The specimen was sent by C.A. Collingwood to the senior author in the 1980s with the labelling " TUNISIA: Medinine- 32 km SE Chabania- 6 km NW leg. H.Heatwole 1976 “. If run as a wild-card in a LDA considering all 16 morphometric characters and collecting all samples of the C. mauritanica species complex in class 1 and all of the C. nuda complex in class 2, the holotype C. paranuda is allocated to the C. nuda complex with p=1.0000. This is problematic because species of the C. nuda species complex are completely absent from the West Palaearctic and North Africa and it appears also most unlikely that ants from Australia should have been anthropogenically introduced to a site in the Sahara desert. Furthermore , NC-clustering places the holotype in a cluster of C. nuda group specimens that are treated as a single species that is restricted to the Australian continent and sister to C. atalanta ( Fig. 8 ). A wild-card run in a LDA confirms this allocation with p=0.9916 (see section 4.4). The most probable explanation for this conflicting situation is a confusion of labels. Harold Heatwole collected in North Africa , Tibet and Australia—for instance, the two C. paranuda samples from Queensland: Chilcott Island in 1967 were taken by him. He usually gave his specimens to Collingwood stored in tubes with ethanol. As repeatedly witnessed by the senior author in personal contacts during laboratory work in 1982 and 1990, Collingwood had the dangerous habit of placing similar ethanol-stored ants from different tubes side-by-side under the microscope for better comparison and sometimes he confused from which tube he had taken the specimens. We conclude that the type of C. paranuda has most probably been collected somewhere in Australia .

Figures

FIGURE 8. NC-Ward clustering of 61 samples of the two remaining Cardiocondyla nuda species complex after C. nuda has been removed from analysis. The lower of the two main branches belongs to C. atalanta Forel, the upper one to C. paranuda. The left column of bars indicates the final clustering hypothesis for K = 2 (C. atalanta vs. C. paranuda) determined by a controlling linear discriminant function (LDA), and the right column of bars the classification by non-hierarchical NC-K- Means clustering. The classification errors in in NC-Ward and NC-K-Means are both 3.3 %.

FIGURE 14. Gaster of Cardiocondyla paranuda in dorsal aspect. Australia: Kunoth Paddock [23.517 ° S, 133.210 ° E], leg. Greenslade 24 October 1974.

FIGURE 15. Head of Cardiocondyla paranuda in dorsal aspect. Australia: Kunoth Paddock [23.517 ° S, 133.210 ° E], leg. Greenslade 24 October 1974.

FIGURE 16. Cardiocondyla paranuda in lateral aspect. Australia: Kunoth Paddock [23.517 ° S, 133.210 ° E], leg. Greenslade 24 October 1974.