Tetramorium bicarinatum (Nylander, 1846)

Barreno, Marissa, López, Myriam Arias de, Pazmiño-Palomino, Alex & Molina-Moreira, Natalia, 2025, A first overview of ant diversity in mangroves along the Ecuadorian coast, Revista Brasileira de Entomologia (e 20240062) 69 (1), pp. 1-16 : 6

Tetramorium bicarinatum (Nylander, 1846) ( Fig. 9 )

Identification: Tetramorium bicarinatum differs from other species in the same genus by its dense and long pilosity on the dorsum of the promesonotum. Its petiolar node is square-shaped when viewed laterally. It can be confused with Tetramorium lanuginosum , but the shape of the mesosoma in lateral view of T. bicarinatum resembles a straight line, whereas in T. lanuginosum the mesosoma has a convex shape ( Serna and Fernández, 2019).

Comment: It is a cosmopolitan invasive species, likely native to Southeast Asia ( Agavekar et al., 2017). In Ecuador, it has been recorded in disturbed and natural environments, in the western foothills of the northern Andes, tropical rainforest of the Amazon lowlands ( Donoso et al., 2017), the Galápagos archipelago ( Herrera et al., 2024), and in the city of Quito ( Salazar-Basurto et al., 2023). It can pose a problem in agriculture, as it has a mutualistic relationship with honeydew-producing hemipterans ( Wetterer, 2009b).

Figures

Figure 9 Tetramorium bicarinatum. a) lateral view, b) full face view, and c) dorsal view of worker. Images by Michael Basantes. Scale 0.5 mm..