Odontomachus linae Donisthorpe

Wilson EO, 1959, Studies on the ant fauna of Melanesia V. The tribe Odontomachini., Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 120, pp. 483-510 : 494

Odontomachus linae Donisthorpe , n. status

(Fig. 4, no. 6)

Odontomachus saevissimus var. linae Donisthorpe , 1940, Entomologist, 73:107, worker, queen. Type locality: Mt. Lina, 1200 m., Cyclops Mts., Neth. New Guinea. (Syntype examined - MCZ.)

Material examined. NETH. NEW GUINEA : Mt. Lina (syntype ). N-E. NEW GUINEA: Kumur, 1000 m., upper Jimmi Valley (J. L. Gressitt).

Taxonomic notes. The only observable difference between this species and opaculus Viehmeyer is in the color characters cited in couplet 16 of the key. But the two forms have widely overlapping ranges and occur at similar elevations. The wisest course for the present would seem to be to treat them tentatively as distinct biological species.

The Kumur specimen differs from the syntype cited in its weaker body sculpturing. Striae are very feeble in the center of the pronotum and completely lacking from the extraocular furrows and mesopleural centers.