4 replies to this topic

[Works4TheGood]

Location: State College, PA. Found drowning in a suburban swimming pool.
Size: 11mm
See pics for more detail.

I caught 7 of these, all of which had fallen into the pool at night, or very early morning

Pics:
http://www.formicult...587-ant-id-req/

[ctantkeeper]

This is Tetramorium sp. E

[Reacker]

Tetramorium sp. 

 

I think they used to be called T. caespitum across the US but last I heard a few years ago it was discovered that actually there are a whole bunch of similar looking Tetramorium species in the US that aren't actually the same species for whatever systematics reasons.

 

Regardless, you can say that you have found some Tetramorium caespitum and everyone will know what you're talking about. 

 

Edit: Or T. sp. E, though I think there is a complex of species with varying letter names in the US and you're not guaranteed to have the sp. E version of that complex.

 

Hopefully someone with more accurate or specific knowledge on this will come and tell me how wrong I am for our mutual benefit. 

Edited by Reacker, July 8 2016 - 7:40 PM.

[Works4TheGood]

Great!  Thanks for the quick responses!  Wow!  My first Tetramorium queens!

[Batspiderfish]

Tetramorium sp. E is more or less a catchall for the complex of Tetramorium we previously thought to be T. caespitum. There are several Tetramorium species which are morphologically identical, fairly ubiquitous and non-native to North America, but genetically distinct from one another.

Edited by Batspiderfish, July 9 2016 - 6:00 AM.