A remarcable new dimorphic species of Solenopsis from Argentina

Abstract

Solenopsis Westwood (Myrmicinae: Solenopsidini) is an ant genus that represents a taxonomic challenge, including about 117 species in the New World, most of them Neotropical. Solenopsis can be divided into two artificial groups: "fire ants" and "thief ants". The second group is represented by species often difficult to identify because of their small size and uniformity of color and sculpture. Most of the thief ants are pale yellow, monomorphic, and lestobiotic, inhabiting small colonies often inside the nests of other ant species. In this paper we describe a new species of thief ant, Solenopsis longicephala sp. n., characterized by extreme dimorphism and with a set of characters probably convergent with other genera of Myrmicinae, such as Carebara and Pheidole.