Euprenolepis procera
| Euprenolepis procera | |
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| Workers of E. procera feeding on a Pleurotus mushroom | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Formicidae |
| Genus: | Euprenolepis |
| Species: | E. procera |
| Binomial name | |
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Euprenolepis procera (Emery, 1900) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Euprenolepis procera is a species of ant found in the rainforests of South East Asia. It was first described by Carlo Emery, an Italian entomologist, in 1900. In 2008, Witte & Maschwitz discovered that E. procera specialises in harvesting mushrooms in the rainforest for food, representing a new, previously unreported feeding strategy in ants.
E. procera is endemic to South East Asia, being found in the rainforests of Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. In Malaysia, where they have been studied, individual colonies were recorded to occur at a density of one nest per approximately 150 m2, but Witte & Maschwitz stated this may be an underestimate as they may not have discovered some colonies.
E. procera was first described in 1900 by Carlo Emery, under the name Prenolepis procera; Emery based his description on material collected by the Italian anthropologist Elio Modigliani in his travels in Malesia. Emery assigned the species to the subgenus Euprenolepis in 1905, and moved that subgenus to the genus Paratrechina in 1925. In 1995, Bolton raised the subgenus to the rank of genus, giving the species its current name.
In 1913, Auguste-Henri Forel described a new species, Camponotus (Myrmosphincta) antespectans, which was also moved to Euprenolepis by Emery. This is now considered a synonym of E. procera.
The workers are polymorphic, consisting of a minor (body length = 3.5–4.5 millimetres or 0.14–0.18 inches) and major caste (body length = 5–6 mm or 0.20–0.24 in); the major caste is relatively rare compared to the minor caste. The workers' heads are heart-shaped, broader than they are long and a "dark-reddish brown" colour. The antennae of both worker castes are made up of twelve segments and are a lighter colour than their heads, their mandibles have five teeth. The major workers superficially resemble species of Pseudolasius.
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Wikipedia