Australasian ants of the subfamily Heteroponerinae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): (2) the species-group of Heteroponera relicta (Wheeler),with descriptions of nine new species and observations on morphology, biogeography and phylogeny of the genus

ROBERT W. TAYLOR

doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3947.2.1

Issue: Vol. 3947 No. 2: 15 Apr. 2015

Type: Article

Published: 2015-04-15

DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3947.2.1

Page range: 151–180

Abstract views: 79

PDF downloaded: 9

Australasian ants of the subfamily Heteroponerinae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): (2) the species-group of Heteroponera relicta (Wheeler),with descriptions of nine new species and observations on morphology, biogeography and phylogeny of the genus

ROBERT W. TAYLOR⁺⁻

Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia Honorary Fellow, National Research Collections Australia, CSIRO, Canberra.

taxonomy Australia Queensland Wet Tropics Heritage Area Neotropical South America Gondwana rainforest

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Abstract

Workers and available gynes of Heteroponera relicta and nine new related morphospecies from northeast Queensland tropical rainforest are described in two species complexes: H. relicta (Wheeler), H. darlingtonorum, H. lioprocta, H. monteithi, H. rhodopygea, H. viviennae and H. wilsoni spp. n. (Heteroponera relicta complex); H. ecarinata, H. pendergrasti and H. trachypyx spp. n. (Heteroponera ecarinata complex). Known gynes (of 3 relicta-complex species) are flightless physogastric ergatoids. Biogeography and evolution of the group and of Heteroponera at large are reviewed.