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Tetramorium tsushimae

Nomenclature

Species: Tetramorium tsushimae Emery, 1925

Vernacular name: Pavement Ant

Syntype: BMNH - ANTC20579 - CASENT0901253

External links

Antweb | Antwiki

Diagnostic description

Diagnosis of worker among Antkey species

Worker caste monomorphic. Head shape roughly subrectangular. Antenna 12-segmented. Antennal club 3-segmented. Antennal scapes not conspicuously short; easily extended beyond eye level; do not extend beyond posterior margin of head. Antennal scrobe present. Antennal insertion surrounded by a raised sharp-edged ridge. Posterolateral corners of head unarmed, without spines. Eyes medium to large (greater than 5 facets); distinctly less than half head length. Frontal lobes do not obscure face outline between mandible and eye; relatively far apart so that the posteromedian portion of the clypeus, where it projects between the frontal lobes, is much broader than one of the lobes. Mandibles triangular. Cephalic dorsum with short lateral rugae intersecting longer longitudinal rugae. Mesosoma with erect hairs. Pronotal spines absent. Propodeum armed with small but distinct triangular teeth. Slope of mesosoma gradual. Waist 2-segmented. Petiole with a square-shaped node; pedunculate; lacking large subpetiolar process postpetiole attached to lower surface of gaster. Postpetiole not swollen; in dorsal view not distinctly broader than long or distinctly wider than petiole. Erect hairs moderately distributed, long and thin. Color uniformly dark brown.

Tetramorium tsushimae is distinguished from its fellow congeners that are introduced in the United States by the following combination of characters: (1) petiolar node square-shaped (versus evenly rounded for T. lanuginosum and T. tonganum; versus wave-shaped for T. insolens and T. pacificum); (2) erect hairs long and thin (versus short and thick for T. caldarium and T. simillimum); (3) cephalic dorsum with primarily subparallel, non-intersecting longitudinal rugae (versus short lateral rugae intersecting longer longitudinal rugae for T. bicarinatum); and (4) propodeum armed with small triangular teeth (versus long and robust spines in T. bicarinatum, T. insolens and T. pacificum). It is difficult to separate T. tsushimae from T. nr. caespitum, but the former is polygynous (versus monogynous). Additional morphometric characters for separating the two are given in Steiner et al. (2006), and an online cyber-identification engine for identifying members of the T. caespitum complex is available at the following portal <https://homepage.boku.ac.at/h505t3/DiscTet/MN8_175-180_printable.pdf?>.

Look alikes

Tetramorium nr. caldarium

Distribution

Click here for updated occurrence data and map on antmaps.org
Click here for updated occurrence data and map on GBIF.org

Lateral view of body, entire, adult worker. Photo by April Nobile, Antweb.org .
Lateral view of body, entire, adult worker. Photo by April Nobile, Antweb.org.
Dorsal view of body, entire, adult worker. Photo by April Nobile, Antweb.org .
Dorsal view of body, entire, adult worker. Photo by April Nobile, Antweb.org.
Anterior view of head, adult worker. Photo by April Nobile, Antweb.org .
Anterior view of head, adult worker. Photo by April Nobile, Antweb.org.
Anterior view of head, adult worker. Cephalic dorsum primarily sculptured with subparallel longitudinal rugae that are not intersected by sections of shorter latitudinal rugae. Used in Antkey to separate Tetramorium caespitum_cf and Tetramorium tsushimae from all other Tetramorium species.
Anterior view of head, adult worker. Cephalic dorsum primarily sculptured with subparallel longitudinal rugae that are not intersected by sections of shorter latitudinal rugae. Used in Antkey to separate Tetramorium caespitum_cf and Tetramorium tsushimae from all other Tetramorium species.
Lateral view of body, surface characters, adult worker. The entire body is uniformly dark brown to black. Used in Antkey to separate Tetramorium lanuginosum , Tetramorium caespitum_cf , Tetramorium pacificum and Tetramorium tsushimae from all other Tetramorium .
Lateral view of body, surface characters, adult worker. The entire body is uniformly dark brown to black. Used in Antkey to separate Tetramorium lanuginosum, Tetramorium caespitum_cf, Tetramorium pacificum and Tetramorium tsushimae from all other Tetramorium.
Lateral view of body, surface characters, adult worker. The erect hairs are long, acuminate, flexuous and moderately abundant, but are never bifid. Used in Antkey to separate Tetramorium bicarinatum , Tetramorium insolens , Tetramorium caespitum_cf , Tetramorium pacificum , Tetramorium tonganum and Tetramorium tsushimae from other Tetramorium species.
Lateral view of body, surface characters, adult worker. The erect hairs are long, acuminate, flexuous and moderately abundant, but are never bifid. Used in Antkey to separate Tetramorium bicarinatum,Tetramorium insolens, Tetramorium caespitum_cf, Tetramorium pacificum, Tetramorium tonganum and Tetramorium tsushimae from other Tetramorium species.
Lateral view of propodeum, adult worker. The propodeal spines are short, weakly developed and more closely resemble teeth or angles than long, well developed spines. Used in Antkey to separate species of Tetramorium .
Lateral view of propodeum, adult worker. The propodeal spines are short, weakly developed and more closely resemble teeth or angles than long, well developed spines. Used in Antkey to separate species of Tetramorium.
Lateral view of petiole, adult worker. The petiolar node is square shaped, with discrete and nearly flat anterior, dorsal and posterior faces. Used in Antkey to separate Tetramorium bicarinatum , Tetramorium caldarium , Tetramorium caespitum_cf , Tetramorium simillimum and Tetramorium tsushimae from all other Tetramorium .
Lateral view of petiole, adult worker. The petiolar node is square shaped, with discrete and nearly flat anterior, dorsal and posterior faces. Used in Antkey to separate Tetramorium bicarinatum, Tetramorium caldarium, Tetramorium caespitum_cf, Tetramorium simillimum and Tetramorium tsushimae from all other Tetramorium.