''Euprenolepis'' is a

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

ant Ants are Eusociality, eusocial insects of the Family (biology), family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the Taxonomy (biology), order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from Vespoidea, vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cre ...

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 botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

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 littl ...

with eight recognized

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

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 () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

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 ( 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 the ge ...

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 ...

'' (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 jawed vertebrates, the mandible (from the Latin ''mandibula'', 'for chewing'), lower jaw, or jawbone is a bone that makes up the lowerand typically more mobilecomponent of the mouth (the upper jaw being known as the maxilla). The jawbone i ...

margin # apical tooth large and curved toward midline of body # mandalus is large and conspicuous # medially placed

clypeus The clypeus is one of the sclerites that make up the face of an arthropod. In insects, the clypeus delimits the lower margin of the face, with the labrum articulated along the ventral margin of the clypeus. The mandibles bracket the labrum, but ...

without a prominent keel # anterior clypeal margin medially emarginate, with a medially placed seta # widely spaced torulae The reduced segmentation in the

palps Pedipalps (commonly shortened to palps or palpi) are the secondary pair of forward appendages among chelicerates – a group of arthropods including spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, and sea spiders. The pedipalps are lateral to the chelicera ...

also helps in diagnosing the genus, except ''

Pseudolasius ''Pseudolasius'' is a genus of ants in the subfamily Formicinae. The genus is known from southern Asia (from India to China) to northern Australia, where it appears to be restricted to tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surroundin ...

'' 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. Wasps, bees and a ...

, 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

paramere Parameres ('side parts') are part of the external reproductive organs of male insects and the term was first used by Karl Wilhelm Verhoeff, Verhoeff in 1893 for the lateral genital lobes in Coleoptera. The primary phallic lobes which appear in th ...

s and terminal gastral segments. The parameres can be difficult to see because of the presence of abundant, long

setae In biology, setae (; seta ; ) are any of a number of different bristle- or hair-like structures on living organisms. Animal setae Protostomes Depending partly on their form and function, protostome setae may be called macrotrichia, chaetae ...

. ''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