Rasopone ferruginea
Creators: name: Longino, John T.
name: Branstetter, Michael G.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Formicidae
Rasopone
Rasopone ferruginea

description: Rasopone ferruginea (Smith)
(Figs. 4 [queen] and 11; Supp Figs. S12 and S 13 [online only])
Ponera ferruginea Smith, 1858: 100. Holotype queen: Mexico [BMNH, AntWeb image examined].
Euponera (Mesoponera) ferruginea: Emery, 1901: 47.
Trachymesopus ferrugineus: Brown, 1963: 7.
Pachycondyla ferruginea: Brown, in Bolton, 1995: 305; MacKay and MacKay, 2010: 319 (description of worker).
Rasopone ferruginea: Schmidt and Shattuck, 2014: 210.
Geographic range. Mexico (Tamaulipas) to Nicaragua.
Measurements, worker: HW 1.27 (1.19–1.33, 4); HL 1.38 (1.33– 1.45, 4); SL 1.04 (0.99–1.10, 4); PTH 0.86 (0.80–0.92, 4); PTL 0.46 (0.42–0.47, 4); CI 92 (88–94, 4); SI 82 (81–84, 4); PTI 53 (50–60, 4). Measurements, queen: HW 1.33 (1.23–1.43, 2); HL 1.42 (1.31–1.54, 2); SL 1.15; PTH 0.93; PTL 0.50; CI 94 (93–94, 2); SI 81; PTI 53.
Diagnosis
Mandible striate; anterior clypeal margin sinuous; side of head lacking erect setae; petiolar node tapering, scale-like. Three species are within geographic and size range of R. ferruginea:
Rasopone politognatha (Fig. 9; Supp Figs. S28 and S29 [online only]): mandible smooth; anterior clypeal margin truncate; petiole less scale-like.
Rasopone subcubitalis (Fig. 10; Supp Fig. S32 [online only]): anterior clypeal margin truncate; petiole nearly cuboidal.
Rasopone JTL035 (Fig. 9; Supp Fig. S38 [online only]): mandible smooth; anterior clypeal margin truncate; petiole less scale-like.
Biology
This species occurs in a variety of wet forest habitats, across an elevational range of 180–1,340 m. Habitats include mature and second growth forests, from lowland rainforest to cloud forest. Cloud forest habitats include Liquidambar dominated forests in Mexico to mesophyll cloud forest in Nicaragua. Most specimens are workers from Winkler samples of forest floor litter and rotten wood. Student D. J. Cox collected a dealate queen and a worker while hand collecting at night. A worker was collected on a clay bank at a stream edge, and another one was collected at a cookie bait.
Comments
The image of the holotype queen on AntWeb shows the distinctive clypeal shape, with a sinuous, non-trapezoidal anterior margin. The size (measured on image), lack of setae on the side of the head, and the asymmetrical, scale-like node also match material identified here as R. ferruginea. North of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, R. ferruginea is sympatric with R. JTL034 and R. JTL035. In the northern lowlands of Chiapas, it is sympatric with R. minuta and R. subcubitalis. In the Cordillera de Chiapas it is sympatric with R. politognatha. There are no records from Guatemala. In Honduras, it is known from the hills above Tela, where it is sympatric with R. minuta. In Nicaragua, it is known from Cerro Musún, where it is sympatric with R. mesoamericana and R. politognatha.
description: Published as part of Longino, John T. & Branstetter, Michael G., 2020, Phylogenomic Species Delimitation, Taxonomy, and ' Bird Guide' Identification for the Neotropical Ant Genus Rasopone (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), pp. 1-33 in Insect Systematics and Diversity 4 (2) on page 23, DOI: 10.1093/isd/ixaa004, http://zenodo.org/record/3826703