Stictoponera bicolor Emery

Brown, W. L., 1950, Morphological, taxonomic and other notes on ants., Wasmann Journal of Biology 8, pp. 241-250 : 245-246

Stictoponera bicolor Emery .

Ectatomma (Stictoponera) bicolor Emery , 1889, Annali del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Genova, 27:493, worker.

Ectatomma (Stictoponera) bicolor var. minor Forel, 1900, Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, 13:316, worker. (New synonymy.)

(See Brown, 1948, Psyche, 54:264.)

Series of this ant found in the Wheeler Collection miscellany show that individuals of a single nest may vary considerably in size, development of the vestigial propodeal lamellae, and color. The yellowish-tan workers which I took to be characteristic forms in the work cited above are obviously merely teneral in the present association. The last excuse for retention of Forel's variety is thus removed. Stictoponera bicolor has been considered a subspecies of Stictoponera menadensis by several authors, but the two forms are distinct in India and Sumatra (Wheeler Collection) even where occurring at the same localities. The fully colored S. bicolor worker has a bright orangeferrugineous alitrunk, brownish head and jet-black gaster; it lacks the median smooth shining strip on the anterior dorsal alitrunk.

The genus Rhopalopone Emery is very close to Stictoponera and has the characteristic coxal spines of the latter genus, but supposedly differs in its erect, thick scale-like petiole, clubbed antennae, and smaller size. Stictoponera panda Brown and Strictoponera taivanensis Wheeler have nodes and antennae much like those of Rhopalopone , and the small extra tarsal claws supposed to be absent in Rhopalopone are actually present but small in at least four species ( Rhopalopone dammermani, Wheeler ; Rhopalopone relicta Mann ; Rhopalopone malaensis Mann , and Rhopalopone luzonensis Wheeler ). This generic separation is thus considerably weakened.