Vollenhovia oblonga laevithorax Emery, 1889

Akbar, Shahid Ali, Bharti, Himender, Schifani, Enrico & Wachkoo, Aijaz Ahmad, 2023, Overview of the ant genus Vollenhovia (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in India and Sri Lanka, with an illustrated key and the description of a new species, European Journal of Taxonomy 908, pp. 77-107 : 87-90

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.5852/ejt.2023.908.2339

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:0F6C37D2-DD6A-49E8-9447-5666859BE75E

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10470928

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/8B339A0C-B35F-9D00-3302-BBCAA6CF4227

treatment provided by

Plazi

scientific name

Vollenhovia oblonga laevithorax Emery, 1889
status

 

Vollenhovia oblonga laevithorax Emery, 1889 View in CoL

Fig. 7 View Fig

Vollenhovia laevithorax Emery, 1889: 501 .

Type locality: Myanmar, Tenasserim [Syntypes: MSNG; Images of CASENT 0904539 syntype worker examined].

Vollenhovia levithorax – Dalla Torre 1893: 61 (misspelling).

Vollenhovia oblonga laevithorax View in CoL – Emery 1897: 560; subspecies of Vollenhovia oblonga (Smith, 1860) View in CoL .

Vollenhovia oblonga leviuscula var. rufescens View in CoL – Emery 1901: 567 (misspelled as leviuscula).

Remarks

Vollenhovia oblonga laevithorax Emery, 1889 is considered a relatively larger subspecies compared to the nominal V. oblonga oblonga (Smith, 1860) , having the mesosoma smooth and shiny with a few delicate, scattered punctures anteriorly, and with the mandibles having six teeth. This subspecies forms part of the oblonga complex which contains six other subspecies including the nominal V. oblonga oblonga , V. oblonga alluaudi Emery, 1894 , V. oblonga bandarensis Forel, 1913 , V. oblonga dispar Forel, 1910 , V. oblonga pedestris (Smith, 1861) , and V. oblonga rufescens Emery, 1894 . The oblonga complex is morphologically diverse and has a vast geographical range, being recorded from Pakistan to the Marshall Islands, the Solomon Islands, and New Caledonia ( Wheeler 1927; Wilson 1959; Clouse 2007). Some of the subspecies exhibit characters suggesting that they may merit being raised to species status, with arguments for and against such changes already present in the literature, but the issue has never been resolved (see Bolton 2023).

In the study area, V. oblonga laevithorax has only been reported once from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands ( Forel 1903). Mohanraj et al. (2010) carried out a comprehensive survey of ants on these islands ( Fig. 5D View Fig ) but could not find it again. The recent Pakistani record of V. oblonga laevithorax by Khudadad et al. (2021) is about 2000 km distant from any other record of V. oblonga (the closest region being Myanmar), which may be explained by insufficient sampling in northern India but also raises the possibility of a further separate taxon. Furthermore, it should be noted that at least the worker caste of V. oblonga laevithorax shows an overall similarity with species belonging to the V. penetrans complex from Southeastern Asia ( Wang et al. 2022), which raises some doubts over the supposed co-occurrence of V. oblonga laevithorax and V. penetrans on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (see Remarks under V. penetrans ). However, V. oblonga laevithorax is very different from any other species of the region due to a combination of very extensive smooth areas (e.g., covering the whole promesonotum) and the deep metanotal impression.

Distribution

Borneo, India (Andaman and Nicobar Islands), Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan ( Emery 1889, 1900; Wheeler 1919; Mohanraj et al. 2010; Khudadad et al. 2021).

MSNG

Italy, Genova, Museo Civico di Storia Naturale "Giacomo Doria"

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Hymenoptera

Family

Formicidae

Genus

Vollenhovia

Loc

Vollenhovia oblonga laevithorax Emery, 1889

Akbar, Shahid Ali, Bharti, Himender, Schifani, Enrico & Wachkoo, Aijaz Ahmad 2023
2023
Loc

Vollenhovia oblonga leviuscula var. rufescens

Emery C. 1901: 567
1901
Loc

Vollenhovia oblonga laevithorax

Emery C. 1897: 560
1897
Loc

Vollenhovia levithorax

Dalla Torre K. W. 1893: 61
1893
Loc

Vollenhovia laevithorax

Emery C. 1889: 501
1889
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