Temnothorax annexus (Baroni Urbani, 1931)

Prebus, Matthew M., 2021, Taxonomic revision of the Temnothorax salvini clade (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), with a key to the clades of New World Temnothorax, PeerJ (e 11514) 9, pp. 1-462 : 93

annexus group overview

Consisting of five species (four of which are newly described here), the annexus group is a relatively small one, with a range spanning the low-to-mid elevations of the American southwest to central Mexico ( Fig. 95 ). Although collections for many of these species are scant, all nest collections so far have been from habitats associated with vegetation, either from epiphytes ( Temnothorax annexus ) or from hollow branches and stems on live vegetation ( T. arbustus sp. nov., T. balnearius sp. nov., T. obtusigaster sp. nov., and T. quercicola sp. nov.). As collections accumulate, this may prove to be the rule. Temnothorax quercicola sp. nov. has a long history of being conflated with T. silvestrii , to the extent that Creighton (1953) described the male and gyne of T. quercicola sp. nov. as T. silvestrii . The two species are superficially similar, but T. silvestrii belongs to another clade entirely (the sallei clade), in yet another example of convergent evolution in Temnothorax . See the comments under T. quercicola sp. nov. below for a more detailed discussion. These species are large, and typically have an emarginate clypeus, short petiolar peduncle, subquadrate petiolar node, and incrassate femora.

Figures

Figure 95 Geographical and elevational distribution of the annexus group. (A) Temnothorax annexus (B) T. arbustus sp. nov. (C) T. balnearius sp. nov. (D) T. obtusigaster sp. nov. (E) T. quercicola sp. nov. Colored scale to the left of each map represents elevation in meters. Points in black represent the species named in each subfigure, while points in red represent other members of the species group. Type localities are represented by triangles, non-type localities are represented by circles. Bounding box in inset map shows location of main map. Full-size DOI: 10.7717/peerj.11514/fig-95