Taxonomic history
Lectotype designation: Hita Garcia & Fisher, 2012b PDF: 69.Combination in Xiphomyrmex: Wheeler, 1922: 1031.Combination in Tetramorium: Bolton, 1979 PDF: 146.Status as species: Wheeler, 1922: 1031; Emery, 1924f PDF: 287; Bolton, 1979 PDF: 146 (redescription); Bolton, 1995b: 410; Hita Garcia & Fisher, 2012b PDF: 69 (redescription).[[ worker ]]. - L. 3,8 a 4,3 mill. - Plus grand que le T. andrei , r. robustius auquel il ressemble beaucoup et dont il ne differe que par les caracteres suivants.
Tete beaucoup plus large derriere que devant; yeux situes au milieu des cotes de la tete. Thorax festonne comme chez le robustior , mais les epines du metanotum sont extremement longues, plus longues que chez le T. kelleri , aussi longues que la face basale du metanotum plus la moitie du mesonotum. Elles sont tres rapprochees a leur base, divergentes, a peine courbees en dehors. Pas d'epines metasternales, seulement deux festons arrondis. Second n oe ud du pedicule plus large que long. Abdomen et face declive du metanotum lisses et luisants. Tout le reste du corps, y' compris les mandibules, fortement et grossierement strie-ride en long. Les stries sont un peu sinueuses, mais, a part quelques reticulations au metasternum et sur les cotes de la tete, leurs intervalles sont luisants, presque lisses, sans elevations transversales (quelques inegalites au fond seulement). Quelques poils dresses jaunatres sur la tete et sur l'abdomen; le reste presque glabre; scapes et tibias sans poils dresses. Pubescence tres courte et fort espacee, mais bien distincte et reguliere sur l'abdomen et les pattes. Entierement d'un beau noir d'ebene; extremite des tarses et de la massue des antennes roussatre; mandibules d'un rougeatre fonce.
Imerina oriental (M. Sikora).
Tetramorium {Xiphomyrmex) latreillei Forel , 1895 a: 247. Syntype workers, Madagascar: Imerina oriental {Sikora) (MHN, Geneva) [examined].
Worker. TL 4.7 - 5.1, HL 1.14 - 1.20, HW 1.04 - 1.12, CI 91 - 93, SL 0.90 - 0.94, SI 82 - 86, PW 0.74 - 0.80, AL 1.38 - 1.46 (4 measured).
Mandibles striate, median clypeal carina present. Frontal carinae long and strong, divergent throughout their length and directed towards the occipital corners posteriorly. Antennal scrobe a well-defined groove capable of holding the scape. Posteromedian portion of head, in front of the occipital margin, impressed, transversely concave. Metanotal groove absent. Propodeal spines long and strong, metapleural lobes low and rounded. Petiole node in profile subrectangular, with vertical and nearly parallel anterior and posterior faces and a feebly convex dorsum. Head, alitrunk and pedicel regularly longitudinally rugose, the pedicel segments more weakly so than the head and alitrunk, the petiole sometimes with a smooth mediodorsal strip. Erect hairs sparse, present only upon the head and pronotum, apparently not developed on mesonotum, propodeum or pedicel. First gastral tergite with fine greyish appressed pubescence but without hairs, the remaining tergites with hairs. Colour uniform dark brown to black.
In the Malagasy fauna a total of 8 species are now known in which the first gastral tergite lacks hairs. Four of these belong to the schaufussi-group, one to the ranarum-group and two to the weitzeckeri-group. T. latreillei is so far the only member of the tortuosum-group in which this character occurs, and it serves to separate easily this species from its close relatives.
Material examined
Madagascar: no loc. (Staudinger); no loc (Sikora).
