''Euprenolepis'' is a

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

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 ...

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 Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classifica ...

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 lit ...

with eight recognized

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriat ...

Species

* '' Euprenolepis echinata'' LaPolla, 2009 * '' Euprenolepis maschwitzi'' LaPolla, 2009 * '' Euprenolepis negrosensis'' (Wheeler, 1930) * '' Euprenolepis procera'' (Emery, 1900) * '' Euprenolepis thrix'' LaPolla, 2009 * '' Euprenolepis variegata'' LaPolla, 2009 * '' Euprenolepis wittei'' LaPolla, 2009 * '' Euprenolepis zeta'' La Polla, 2009

Distribution

''Euprenolepis'' is endemic to southeastern Asia. Most species are presently known from

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and e ...

only, but whether or not this reflects biological reality or collecting bias remains unclear.

Taxonomy

''Euprenolepis'' was constructed 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 ...

within ''

Prenolepis ''Prenolepis'' is a genus of ants in the subfamily Formicinae. Most species are found in southeastern Asia and southern China, but the genus has a wide distribution with species known from North America, southern Europe, Anatolia, Cuba, Haiti, ...

'' by Emery (1906), but he later moved the subgenus to ''

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 a ...

'' (Emery, 1925). When ''Euprenolepis'' was raised to full genus level by Brown (1953), he also synonymized ''Chapmanella'' with ''Euprenolepis''.

Description

Six diagnostic characters can generally separate ''Euprenolepis'' workers from the workers of other formicine genera: # basal tooth with a distinct obtuse angle on the inner

mandibular In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower tooth, teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movabl ...

margin # apical tooth large and curved toward midline of body # mandalus is large and conspicuous # medially placed clypeus without a prominent keel # anterior clypeal margin medially emarginate, with a medially placed seta # widely spaced

torula Torula (''Cyberlindnera jadinii'') is a species of yeast. Use Torula, in its inactive form (usually labeled as torula yeast), is widely used as a flavoring in processed foods and pet foods. It is often grown on wood liquor, a byproduct of pape ...

e The reduced segmentation in the

palps Pedipalps (commonly shortened to palps or palpi) are the second pair of appendages of chelicerates – a group of arthropods including spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, and sea spiders. The pedipalps are lateral to the chelicerae ("jaws") a ...

also helps in diagnosing the genus, except '' Pseudolasius'' also exhibits palpal segment reduction. With the exception of '' E. negrosensis'', all species appear to have a 3:4 palpal formula. ''Pseudolasius'' typically possess two or three labial palpal segments. ''Euprenolepis'' is most likely to be confused with ''Pseudolasius'',but with the exception of ''E. negrosensis'', ''Euprenolepis'' species have much larger eyes than ''Pseudolasius'' species. Additionally, the six characters listed above provide a means to separate the two genera. ''E. negrosensis'' placement within the genus remains somewhat problematic. The species was originally placed in its own genus, ''Chapmanella'', by Wheeler (1930), but overall its general morphology suggests placement in ''Euprenolepis''. However, it is distinctly unlike other species, in that it possesses very small eyes, extreme elongation of the

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 ...

, a quadriform basal tooth (although rarely some specimens observed have a basal tooth as in other ''Euprenolepis'' species), and a 4:4 palpal formula. This species is at present maintained in ''Euprenolepis'', but this result should be confirmed with molecular data once specimens become available for molecular study. Morphological characters of ''E. negrosensis'' males do suggest placement within the genus for several shared characters exist among the three species where males are known. Among those are: # digiti weakly anvil-shaped, ventrally directed # digiti and cuspi meeting dorsally, about halfway along length of digiti # apices of parameres bending towards the midline of the body These three characters may represent diagnostic features for the genus. Another distinctive feature of all known ''Euprenolepis'' males is their hirsuteness, especially on the parameres and terminal gastral segments. The parameres can be difficult to see because of the presence of abundant, long

setae 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. ...

. ''E. negrosensis'' apparently is a hypogaeic species based on its small eyes and yellow, thin cuticle, and this may explain the unusual appearance of the workers compared to other species within the genus. It remains unclear how widespread polymorphism is in the genus. Polymorphism is exhibited in '' E. procera'', with a minor and major worker caste clearly expressed. However, in no other known species is polymorphism observed. This may reflect collecting bias, because most species are only known from a few localities. However, at least one species, '' E. wittei'', has been collected from long nest series and polymorphism has not been found in the workers. Despite ''E. procera'' being by far the most commonly encountered ''Euprenolepis'' in collections, majors are still relatively uncommon.

References

*Brown, W.L., Jr. (1953) Characters and synonymies among the genera of ants. Part II. ''Breviora'', 18, 1–8. *Emery, C. (1906) Note sur Prenolepis vividula Nyl. et sur la classification des espèces du genre Prenolepis. ''Annales de la Société Entomologique de Belgique'', 50, 130–134. *Emery, C. (1925) Hymenoptera. Fam. Formicidae. Subfam. Formicinae. ''Genera Insectorum'', 183, 1–302. * *Wheeler, W.M. (1930) Two new genera of ants from Australia and the Philippines. ''Psyche'' (Cambridge), 37, 41–47.

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q4038295 Formicinae Ant genera Hymenoptera of Asia