Paltothyreus
Paltothyreus tarsatus worker
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Ponerinae
Tribe: Ponerini
Genus: Paltothyreus
Mayr, 1862
Species:
P. tarsatus
Binomial name
Paltothyreus tarsatus
(Fabricius, 1798)
Synonyms

Formica tarsata Fabricius, 1798 (type species of Paltothyreus)

Paltothyreus (also known as African stink ant) is a monotypic genus of ants in the subfamily Ponerinae.[1] Paltothyreus tarsatus, the single described species, is widely distributed in Sub-Saharan Africa. Workers are very large in size (17–20 mm); queens are similar to workers, but larger (23 mm) and winged.[2]

Habitat

Paltothyreus tarsatus construct shallow nests that cover a large home range. Most of the nest is shallow tunnels used by foragers to travel without risking predation and emerging far from the nest center.[3] The nests can have as many as 5000 workers, a number very few ant species are able to match. Although the ants are predators and feed on animals as large as beetles, the frog Phrynomantis microps is sometimes found inside the nests as it uses them as a burrow. A skin secretion that inhibits the ant's aggression allows it to coexist with the ants.[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Bolton, B. (2015). "Paltothyreus". AntCat. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  2. ↑ Schmidt, C. A.; Shattuck, S. O. (2014). "The Higher Classification of the Ant Subfamily Ponerinae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), with a Review of Ponerine Ecology and Behavior". Zootaxa. 3817 (1): 1–242. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3817.1.1. PMID 24943802.
  3. ↑ Braun, Ulrich; Peeters, Christian; Holldobler, Bert (1994). "The Giant Nests of the African Stink Ant Paltothyreus tarsatus (Formicidae, Ponerinae)". Biotropica. 26 (3): 308–311. doi:10.2307/2388852. ISSN 0006-3606.
  4. ↑ Rodel, Mark-Oliver; Braun, Ulrich (1999). "Associations between Anurans and Ants in a West African Savanna (Anura: Microhylidae, Hyperoliidae, and Hymenoptera: Formicidae)". Biotropica. 31 (1): 178–183. doi:10.2307/2663971. ISSN 0006-3606.


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