Tetramorium difficile Bolton, 1977

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 : 58-59

Taxon classification Animalia Hymenoptera Formicidae

Tetramorium difficile Bolton, 1977 Figure 36

Material examined.

CHINA, Yunnan, Xishuangbanna: XTBG (21.918°N, 101.271°E), Secondary forest, 05.vi.2013, 2 workers, 552 m, Winkler sifting, B. Guénard, B. Blanchard and C. Liu.

Distribution.

Known form Yunnan (new record), northern India, and Vietnam (Figure 36C).

Taxonomic note.

Tetramorium difficile is a member of the Tetramorium tonganum group and can be identified with the key provided by Bolton (1977). However, Tetramorium difficile under its current definition is morphologically very close to Tetramorium tonganum . It is likely that both are conspecific and the material listed as Tetramorium difficile represents intraspecific forms of the very widespread Tetramorium tonganum .

Natural history.

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