A New Species of Ant Found in Cambodia

[geovalin]

A new species of ant has been discovered in Cambodia by researchers from Japan. Its name is Crematogaster indosinensis, and it is described in Annals of the Entomological Society of America.

During the researchers’ field surveys, they collected one colony that contained four worker ants of the new species. The new species was described based on these workers.

In most Crematogaster species, the workers have 11 segments on their antennae. However, there are some species that only have 10, and this new species is the first 10-segmented species to be found in the Indochina region.

Interestingly, the workers also exhibit polymorphism, meaning they do not all have the same size or form. In fact, the largest worker had a head that was nearly twice as wide as the smallest worker’s head.

The head of a large Crematogaster indosinensis worker (left) and of a small worker (right).

The new species was given the name indosinensis in honor of the region in which it was discovered.

source https://entomologytoday.org/2016/07/21/a-new-species-of-ant-found-in-cambodia/

[Radar501]

Stir-fried Crematogaster indosinensis probably crawled its way onto the Khmer diet centuries ago.

But, only now has the species been 'discovered' by Japanese researchers.

[The Deerhunter]

Darwin commented in his Origin of Species on the occurrence of different sized workers in certain ant species over 150 years ago. It is not uncommon.

[tandor]

well obvious...the various foremen must have the brain capacity to store all that building knowledge and keep the troops under control..you need a big head for that job.

[Skeptic7]

COOL! A nice change to all the extinct/threatened/near extinct stories...