Echinopla cherapunjiensis Bharti & Gul, 2012

Zettel, Herbert & Laciny, Alice, 2015, Contributions to the taxonomy of the ant genus Echinopla Smith, 1857 (Hymenoptera, Formicidae), Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift 62 (1), pp. 101-121 : 111

Taxon classification Animalia Hymenoptera Formicidae

Echinopla cherapunjiensis Bharti & Gul, 2012

Material examined.

2 workers (NHMW) from Laos, Luang Nam Tha Province, ca. 25 km SE Muang Sing, 900 m a.s.l., 14-15., 20-22.VI.1996, leg. H. Schillhammer (27, 34); 1 worker (ZCW) from West Malaysia, Perak. 40 km SE of Ipoh, Banjaran Titi Wangsa, Ringlet, 900 m a.s.l., 29.III.-15.IV.2004, leg. Petr Čechovský.

Notes.

This species can be characterized by tuberculate sculpture of head and mesosoma, whereas the gaster tergite 1 is polyporous, by black trunk with yellowish legs, scape, and mouthparts, and by white pilosity. It shares the position of eyes with Echinopla tritschleri but can be easily distinguished from this species by relatively low pedestals on head and mesosoma, the polyporous sculpture of tergite 1, the almost vertically positioned frontal lobes, and a longer and lower, polyporous petiolar node. Bharti and Gul (2012) stated that the mesometanotal suture is obsolete in the holotype of Echinopla cherapunjiensis . However, a re-examination of the type by Professor Himender Bharti revealed the presence of a narrow suture covered by the dense hair (Bharti, in litteris), as in our specimens from Laos and Malaysia, and as in Echinopla tritschleri .

Bharti and Gul (2012) described Echinopla cherapunjiensis based on a single worker from Meghalaya, northeastern India. Liu et al. (2015) published a new record from Yunnan, China. Antweb (2015) illustrated the holotype and an " Echinopla cn01" specimen from Guanxi, China, that apparently belongs to this species. Our first records from Laos and West Malaysia are a considerable extension of the known distribution of Echinopla cherapunjiensis .