Tetramorium flavipes Emery, 1893

Liu, Cong, Guenard, Benoit, Garcia, Francisco Hita, Yamane, Seiki, Blanchard, Benjamin, Yang, Da-Rong & Economo, Evan, 2015, New records of ant species from Yunnan, China, ZooKeys 477, pp. 17-78 : 59-60

Taxon classification Animalia Hymenoptera Formicidae

Tetramorium flavipes Emery, 1893 Figure 37

Material examined.

CHINA, Yunnan, Xishuangbanna: XTBG (21.918°N, 101.271°E), Secondary forest, 05.vi.2013, 35 workers, 552 m, Winkler sifting, B. Guénard, B. Blanchard and C. Liu; XTBG (21.917°N, 101.274°E), Secondary forest, 08.vi.2013, 33 workers, 625 m, Winkler sifting, B. Guénard, B. Blanchard and C. Liu; Kilometer 55 station (21.961°N, 101.201°E), Rain forest, 10.vi.2013, 8 workers, 820m, Winkler sifting, B. Guénard, B. Blanchard and C. Liu; Kilometer 55 station (21.963°N, 101.200°E), Rain forest, 13.vi.2013, 5 workers, 815m, Winkler sifting, B. Guénard, B. Blanchard and C. Liu.

Distribution.

Known from Yunnan (new record), Vietnam, Thailand and Sri Lanka (Figure 37C). This new record represents the northern-most record in the distribution of this species.

Taxonomic note.

Tetramorium flavipes is a member of the Tetramorium tortuosum group. Its identification is relatively straightforward with the key given by Bolton (1977). However, Tetramorium flavipes , originally described from Thailand, is very close to Tetramorium eleates Forel, 1913 from Borneo and the Philippines, and as already pointed out by Bolton (1977), both could represent geographic variants of the same species.

Natural history.

Tetramorium flavipes has been collected from leaf litter in secondary forest, and very little is known about its bionomics.