11 replies to this topic

[Leo]

Weird looking crematogaster (queen?) found walking in a trail of workers, alongside 5 or so other similar looking "queens".

Location: Hong Kong

Size: 5mm (head-gaster), exact same as workers it was found with 

Collected in a subtropical rainforest

 

head appears weirdly truncated as well

I think i've seen the normal queens of the worker crematogaster before, which look like your run-of-the-mill crem queens, being around twice the size of the workers

 

 

 

[Flu1d]

What color(s) were the workers? We can effectively rule out C. biroi and C. cylindriceps based on how this queen looks (those are both yellow and look different and bigger than the workers noticeably), leaving you with 5 species. Sadly, most of the Hong Kong species are just single pictures and of the workers. Someone definitely should do some work to expand that! ( Hint, hint )

[Mettcollsuss]

Definitely some kind of parasitic Crematogaster. Maybe something akin to ranavalonae group, I'm not sure if there are parasitic Crematogaster in the region other than ranavalonae group or not.

[Leo]

What color(s) were the workers? We can effectively rule out C. biroi and C. cylindriceps based on how this queen looks (those are both yellow and look different and bigger than the workers noticeably), leaving you with 5 species. Sadly, most of the Hong Kong species are just single pictures and of the workers. Someone definitely should do some work to expand that! ( Hint, hint )

 

The workers were a similar black-red color, though the worker I collected was damaged so I'll go back to the area and try collect some more

[Flu1d]

Where are they black and where are they red?

[Flu1d]

Also, based on what Mettcollsuss has said, I would say you're looking at Crematogaster ebenina. Here is a pic of a worker for you to look at and confirm if it looks similar.





The picture is from iNaturalist, I took a screenshot and cropped it so I apologize if the quality makes it harder to identify.

Edited by Flu1d, May 31 2023 - 3:21 PM.

[Mettcollsuss]

The head shape of the queen doesn't match that of the ebenina queen specimen on AntWeb.

 

[Leo]

Where are they black and where are they red?

don't remember, i'll update this thread with worker pictures when I go to the area again

[Flu1d]

The head shape of the queen doesn't match that of the ebenina queen specimen on AntWeb.

Well the only other 2 ants that look even remotely close aren't labeled as that group you mentioned. Also, I have seen incorrect things on Antweb before, I forget which species but it stated "this Pheidole is known to have a powerful sting that will leave you itching and in pain". To my knowledge, there is no Southeastern US Pheidole (or ANY Pheidole) that stings.. I have only seen them bite and none of them have ever felt like a sting and none of them have ever been able to break skin, not even the biggest majors we have here which are P. obscurithorax (I handle them regularly).

However, I am not stating that this means that this particular thing on Antweb is wrong, just stating I have seen incorrect info before.. and since there are no actual pictures of their queens on iNat, I was only suggesting it.

Edited by Flu1d, May 31 2023 - 4:55 PM.

[Flu1d]

If it isn't C. ebenina, the only other ones I can suggest with red/black workers are C. rogenhoferi, C. egidyi and C. nawai. Unfortunately, none of these species have queen pics on iNat, and none of them are listed as ranavalonae. They could have the wrong "group" listed, however, because I'm not so sure how accurate those listings on iNat are and could have the incorrect group. They just are under "Crematogaster" group.

[Leo]

well it could just be unreported or a new species, its not impossible.

 

Heck, the protanilla I found was a new record in HK and is still awaiting description 

[Manitobant]

I’d definitely say its ranavalonae group judging by the small size and truncated head shape, the latter of which is something quite a few species in this group have. Also as a side note this queen is very different from mutans, the parasitic crematogaster species us North Americans are used to seeing and hearing about.