Tetraponera allaborans (Walker, 1859)

Material examined. Kent Ridge, 3 Jan 1983, D.H. Murphy leg., ZRC _HYM_0000765; same locality and collector as previous, 13 May 1985, ZRC _HYM_0000766; Mandai mangroves, 2 Oct 1978, D.H. Murphy leg., ZRC _ HYM_0000764; Pulau Semakau New Fragment, SMN3, 1°12’05.6”N, 103°45’46.5”E, 13-20 Sep 2012, J. Puniamoorthy et al. leg., malaise trap, Reg. 29471, ZRC _ BDP0016113; queen and workers, University Hall (NUS), 1.29711, 103.77658, May-Aug 2015, M.S. Foo & W. Wang leg., malaise trap, ZRC _BDP (multiple); Upper Thomson Road, 13 Sep 2016, G.W. Yong leg., ZRC _ ENT00048105 ; Sungei Buloh, 8 Jan 2013, Sk. Yamane leg. (SKYC) .

Material not physically examined. Alate queen, CASENT0752596, ANTC42318 (CASC); CASENT0795901, tc1162110327 (PSWC); queens, males, and workers, CASENT0795901-795912 (PSWC).

Literature. Viehmeyer (1916), Overbeck (1924) [both as Sima ( Tetraponera allaborans, and S. allaborans var. sumatrensis); Ward (2001); Wang et al. (2018a).

Localities. Bukit Timah; Kent Ridge; Lim Chu Kang; Mandai mangroves; Pulau Semakau; Sungei Buloh; University Hall (NUS); Upper Thomson Road.

Habitat/Ecology. This arboreal species was found in a broad range of habitats at varying levels of disturbance in Singapore, such as mangroves, young secondary forest fragments and scrubland in urban or semi-urban settings. In mangroves, individuals were found on low vegetation, in dead twigs of coastal plants such as Hibiscus tiliaceus; nests have been found in Sonneratia branches. The ants were also collected from secondary forest fringes, roadsides and urban parklands, in fallen dead twigs of various tree or shrub species including: Clerodendron disparifolium, Mallotus sp., Citharexylum spinosum, Delonix regia, and Vitex pubescens . Sometimes individuals were found on foliage in secondary forest, including on Bromhedia orchids.

Remarks. Specimens examined were observed to be morphologically rather variable across samples, but this is to be expected of the species (see Ward 2001) and all morphological variants were treated as conspecific at the time of writing.