Pogonomyrmex naegelii Emery, 1878

Pazmiño-Palomino, Alex & Troya, Adrian, 2022, Ants of Ecuador: new species records for a megadiverse country in South America, Revista Brasileira de Entomologia (e 20210089) 66 (2), pp. 1-15 : 8-9

Pogonomyrmex naegelii Emery, 1878

Figs. 15 , 21D Material examined. Ecuador. Zamora Chinchipe: Road to Zumba-La

Balsa, Pucapamba, 4.9771°S, 79.1155°W, 680m, 1☿, 2017-08-10, Pazmiño,

A., hand collected, (MEPN).

Comments. This species has been assigned to the P. naegelii group sensu Johnson (2015) and among some of the morphological traits characterizing this taxon, we may cite the following for the worker caste (based on said author, in part): frontal lobes bearing between 8-10 strong rugae; concavity on anterior clypeal margin feebly to well-developed, and usually lacking well-developed acute lobes, in frontal view; peduncle of petiole and anterior region of petiolar node meeting at an obtuse angle, in lateral view. This is the most commonly collected taxon in the genus and is distributed only in South America from northern Venezuela to central-northern Argentina and can be found in a variety of biomes and ecosystems but appears to be absent from deserts and high elevation zones ( Johnson, 2015). APP collected a single specimen in a xerophytic disturbed area close to the southeastern border between Ecuador and Peru.

Figures

Figure 15 Pogonomyrmex naegelii Emery (worker,MEPN 40046):A) profile,B) frontal view, C) dorsal view. Images by Vladimir Carvajal. Scale bars = 1 mm.

Figure 21 Geographic distribution of the species examined in the present study.