Revision of the ant genus Prionopelta (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in the Indo-Pacific region.

This dataset contains the digitized treatments in Plazi based on the original journal article Shattuck, S. O. (2008): Revision of the ant genus Prionopelta (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in the Indo-Pacific region. Zootaxa 1846: 21-34, URL: http://hol.osu.edu/reference-full.html?id=21825AbstractThe ant genus Prionopelta is revised for the Indo-Pacific region. Six species are known, two of which are newly described, media sp. n., and robynmae sp. n. While widespread in the region the genus is not common and is largely restricted to rainforest habitats where nests are found in soil or rotten wood on the ground. These ants are most often encountered in leaf litter samples are while foraging on the ground.Key words: Indo-Pacific, Formicidae, Hymenoptera, new species, Prionopelta IntroductionIn the most recent species-level examination of the ant genus Prionopelta, Brown (1960) recognised 10 species. Since then two additional species have been described (Terron, 1974) and one transferred to the genus (Brown, 1965). Thus Prionopelta is currently known to contain 13 species, four from Africa and Madagascar, five from Central and South America and four from the Indo-Pacific region. While Brown (1960) clarified the status of most species, he was unable to develop clear diagnoses for two Indo-Pacific species, kraepelini and opaca. As a result, the distribution information for these two was confused and his identification key did not separate them, these two taxa keying to the same lug.The occurrence of kraepelini and opaca within the Australian fauna was left in an ambiguous state by Brown. For example, Brown's (1960:177) list of Prionopelta species mentions only P. opaca as occurring in Australia with P. kraepelini reported as occurring in the East Indies, the Philippines and Micronesia. Based on this, Taylor (Taylor and Brown 1985) listed only P. opaca as being known from Australia. However, in Brown's (1960:219-221) discussion, he says that "Together, they [kraepelini and opaca] turn out to have a vast range, from northern Queensland (at least) in the southeast to Java and the Philippines to the west and north. The typical opaca come chiefly from New Guinea and parts of Micronesia." Later he states that he has seen samples more or less closely agreeing with kraepelini from several Australian localities. Thus Brown (1960) reports that opaca occurs in Australia while kraepelini does not, and then says that opaca occurs "chiefly" in New Guinea and lists several Australian localities for kraepelini but none for opaca. To resolve this confusion the genus is reviewed for the entire Indo-Pacific region.