Odontomachus testaceus Emery, 1959

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 : 500-501

Odontomachus testaceus Emery , n. status (Pig. 4, no. 2)

Odontomachus tyrannicus var. testacea Emery , 1897, Ann. Mus. Civ. Stor. Nat. Genova, 38:557, worker. Type locality: “Haveri,” New Guinea. (Syntype examined - Emery Coll.)

Odontomachus gulosus Emery , 1902, Természetr. Fiiz., 25:160, worker. Type locality: Sattelberg, N-E. New Guinea. NEW SYNONYMY. (Syntype examined - Emery Coll.)

Odontomachus gulosus var. nubila Emery , 1911, Nova Guinea, 9(2)zool.: 250, worker. Type locality: Etna Bay, Neth. New Guinea. NEW SYNONYMY (provisional).

Odontomachus nigrifrons Donisthorpe , 1940, Entomologist, 73:106, worker. Type locality: Hollandia, Neth. New Guinea. NEW SYNONYMY. (Syntype examined - BMNH.)

Material examined. NETH. NEW GUINEA: Hollandia { nigrifrons Donisthorpe syntype). N-E. NEW GUINEA: lower Busu River (Wilson, nos. 904, 944) ; Lae (N. L. II. Krauss) ; Boana, 1100 m. (Wilson, no. 1115) ; Finschhafen ( N. G. L. Wagner) ; Lambaeb, 900 m., Saruwaged Ra. (E. J. Ford) ; Foria River to Zingzingu, ca. 1000 m. (Wilson, no. 757) ; Zingzingu, 1200 m. (Wilson, no. 761) ; Gemeheng, 1300 m. (Wilson) ; Tumnang , 1450-1600 m., a single male (Wilson). PAPUA : Dobodura (P. J. Darlington) ; Karema, Brown R. (Wilson, no. 595) ; Bisianumu, 500 m. (Wilson, nos. 607, 623; J. L. Gressitt).

Taxonomic note. Workers from the Huon Peninsula have a paler ground color than those from Papua, and their cephalic and gastric patches are reduced to faint infuscations. They include the type specimens of Emery’s synonymous form gulosus .

Ecological notes. Many nests of this species were found by the author during his field studies in New Guinea. In most cases they had been excavated in the soil and were marked externally by a single wide, vertical entrance shaft surrounded by a ring of coarse pellets of excavated earth. Often they were located between the buttresses of forest trees. At Karema a single colony was in the rotting center of a branch of a fallen tree, in a terminal portion raised off the ground. At Bisianumu a dealate queen was found isolated with five eggs in a cell under the bark of a rotting log. Mature colonies contain several hundred workers. Alate queens and males were taken in a nest at Karema on March 10, 1955, and a lone male was collected at light at Tuinnang on April 14, 1955. The workers are unusually aggressive and capable of delivering a shocking sting. These traits, combined with the large size of the workers, make them among the most formidable ants to be found anywhere in the world.