''Paraparatrechina'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

of small

ant Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of 22 ...

s in the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...

Formicinae The Formicinae are a subfamily within the Formicidae containing ants of moderate evolutionary development. Formicines retain some primitive features, such as the presence of cocoons around pupae, the presence of ocelli in workers, and little ...

. The genus contains 31 species distributed in the

tropics The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

of Africa, Asia and Australia.

Distribution and habitat

The genus is restricted to the

Paleotropics The Paleotropical Kingdom (Paleotropis) is a floristic kingdom comprising tropical areas of Africa, Asia and Oceania (excluding Australia and New Zealand), as proposed by Ronald Good and Armen Takhtajan. Part of its flora, inherited from the ancient ...

. Thirteen species are known from the

Afrotropical The Afrotropical realm is one of Earth's eight biogeographic realms. It includes Africa south of the Sahara Desert, the majority of the Arabian Peninsula, the island of Madagascar, southern Iran and extreme southwestern Pakistan, and the island ...

and Malagasy regions, and twenty-five species and subspecies from Asia and Australia, although preliminary study suggests that there are many

undescribed species In taxonomy, an undescribed taxon is a taxon (for example, a species) that has been discovered, but not yet formally described and named. The various Nomenclature Codes specify the requirements for a new taxon to be validly described and named. U ...

. Very little is known about the biology of ''Paraparatrechina'' in the Afrotropical and Malagasy regions. They have been found in a wide range of tropical habitats from rainforests to forest clearings in sifted leaf litter, rotten logs, under stones, and from beating vegetation and fogging samples from the forest canopy.

Taxonomy

''Paraparatrechina'' was first described as a

subgenus In biology, a subgenus (plural: subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between t ...

of ''

Paratrechina ''Paratrechina'' is one of seven ant genera (alongside ''Euprenolepis, Nylanderia, Paraparatrechina, Prenolepis, Pseudolasius,'' and ''Zatania'') in the ''Prenolepis'' genus-group from the subfamily Formicinae (tribe Lasiini). Six species are ...

'' by

Donisthorpe Donisthorpe is a village in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, England, historically an exclave of Derbyshire. History In 1086 Donisthorpe was part of the land given to Nigel of Stafford by William the Conqueror. It w ...

(1947). LaPolla ''et al.'' (2010a) elevated the formerly synonymized subgenus to genus rank based on both morphological and molecular data.

Description

''Paraparatrechina'' are small (typically around 1–2 mm in total length) formicine ants, which often reflect a metallic iridescence (blue, purple and pink hues have been observed) under light microscopy. In darker species, the iridescence tends to be a darker bluish-purple, while lighter colored species either show little iridescence or reflect a more pinkish-purple hue. ''Paraparatrechina'' are usually easily distinguishable from other formicine genera by a unique

mesosoma The mesosoma is the middle part of the body, or tagma, of arthropods whose body is composed of three parts, the other two being the prosoma and the metasoma. It bears the legs, and, in the case of winged insects, the wings. In hymenopterans of t ...

seta In biology, setae (singular seta ; from the Latin word for "bristle") are any of a number of different bristle- or hair-like structures on living organisms. Animal setae Protostomes Annelid setae are stiff bristles present on the body. Th ...

l pattern: two pairs of erect setae on the

pronotum The prothorax is the foremost of the three segments in the thorax of an insect, and bears the first pair of legs. Its principal sclerites (exoskeletal plates) are the pronotum (dorsal), the prosternum (ventral), and the propleuron (lateral) on ea ...

, one pair on the

mesonotum The mesothorax is the middle of the three segments of the thorax of hexapods, and bears the second pair of legs. Its principal sclerites (exoskeletal plates) are the mesonotum (dorsal), the mesosternum (ventral), and the mesopleuron (lateral) on ...

and one pair on the

propodeum The propodeum or propodium is the first abdominal segment in Apocrita Hymenoptera (wasps, bees and ants). It is fused with the thorax to form the mesosoma. It is a single large sclerite, not subdivided, and bears a pair of spiracles. It is strongl ...

. ''

Nylanderia ''Nylanderia'' is a large genus of ants in the subfamily Formicinae. The genus has a nearly cosmopolitan distribution with species inhabiting a wide array of habitats in almost all geographic regions. ''Nylanderia'', currently containing over 1 ...

'', the genus most likely confused with ''Paraparatrechina'', never possesses a pair of erect setae on the propodeum. The mandibles of ''Paraparatrechina'' also possess five teeth, while in ''Nylanderia'' six teeth are usually present.

Species

*'' Paraparatrechina albipes'' (Emery, 1899) *'' Paraparatrechina brunnella'' LaPolla, Cheng & Fisher, 2010 *'' Paraparatrechina bufona'' (Wheeler, 1922) *'' Paraparatrechina butteli'' (Forel, 1913) *'' Paraparatrechina caledonica'' (Forel, 1902) *'' Paraparatrechina concinnata'' LaPolla, Cheng & Fisher, 2010 *'' Paraparatrechina dichroa'' (Karavaiev, 1933) *'' Paraparatrechina emarginata'' (Forel, 1913) *'' Paraparatrechina foreli'' (Emery, 1914) *'' Paraparatrechina glabra'' (Forel, 1891) *'' Paraparatrechina gnoma'' LaPolla, Cheng & Fisher, 2010 *'' Paraparatrechina iridescens'' (Donisthorpe, 1942) *'' Paraparatrechina kongming'' (Terayama, 2009) *'' Paraparatrechina koningsbergeri'' (Karavaiev, 1933) *'' Paraparatrechina lecamopteridis'' (Donisthorpe, 1941) *'' Paraparatrechina minutula'' (Forel, 1901) *'' Paraparatrechina myops'' LaPolla, Cheng & Fisher, 2010 *'' Paraparatrechina nana'' (Santschi, 1928) *'' Paraparatrechina nettae'' (Forel, 1911) *'' Paraparatrechina oceanica'' (Mann, 1921) *'' Paraparatrechina ocellatula'' LaPolla, Cheng & Fisher, 2010 *'' Paraparatrechina opaca'' (Emery, 1887) *'' Paraparatrechina oreias'' LaPolla, Cheng & Fisher, 2010 *'' Paraparatrechina pallida'' (Donisthorpe, 1947) *'' Paraparatrechina pusillima'' (Emery, 1922) *'' Paraparatrechina sauteri'' (Forel, 1913) *'' Paraparatrechina splendida'' LaPolla, Cheng & Fisher, 2010 *'' Paraparatrechina subtilis'' (Santschi, 1920) *'' Paraparatrechina tapinomoides'' (Forel, 1905) *'' Paraparatrechina umbranatis'' LaPolla, Cheng & Fisher, 2010 *'' Paraparatrechina weissi'' (Santschi, 1910)

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q16987462 Formicinae Ant genera