Probolomyrmex kelleri Oliveira & Feitosa, 2019

Arredondo, Brandon S., Carreño-Guevara, Yennifer, Gutierrez-Villanueva, Yenifer, Duran-Bautista, Ervin Humprey, Gamboa-Tabares, Jean & Guerrero, Roberto J., 2025, Soil and leaf litter ants from the Amazon Region offer new distribution records for Colombia, Biodiversity Data Journal 13, pp. e 142813-e 142813 : e142813-

Probolomyrmex kelleri Oliveira & Feitosa, 2019

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: LEUA- 00000066494 ; recordedBy: Brandon S. Arredondo; individualCount: 1; sex: female; occurrenceID: B8724BBD-7DAB-50B8-A0C1-1540233729BD; Taxon: scientificName: Probolomyrmex kelleri ; kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Hymenoptera ; family: Formicidae ; genus: Probolomyrmex ; specificEpithet: kelleri ; scientificNameAuthorship: Oliveira & Feitosa, 2019; Location: continent: South America; country: Colombia; countryCode: CO; stateProvince: Caquetá; county: Florencia; locality: Vda. Las Doradas, Fca. Palmichal ; verbatimElevation: 684 m; locationRemarks: Collected in leaf Litter; verbatimCoordinates: 01°43'01.3"N 75°40'24.2"W; verbatimCoordinateSystem: WGS 84; Event: samplingProtocol: Winkler; eventDate: 2023-05-15; Record Level: language: es; collectionID: RNC: 270; institutionCode: Universidad de la Amazonia (UDLA); basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: LEUA- 00000066495 ; recordedBy: Brandon S. Arredondo; individualCount: 1; sex: female; occurrenceID: A7C759B7-128B-5420-BD08-6A8D95ADEA42; Taxon: scientificName: Probolomyrmex kelleri ; kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Hymenoptera ; family: Formicidae ; genus: Probolomyrmex ; specificEpithet: kelleri ; scientificNameAuthorship: Oliveira & Feitosa, 2019; Location: continent: South America; country: Colombia; countryCode: CO; stateProvince: Caquetá; county: Florencia; locality: Vda. Las Doradas, Fca. Palmichal ; verbatimElevation: 684 m; locationRemarks: Collected in leaf Litter; verbatimCoordinates: 01°43'01.3"N 75°40'24.2"W; verbatimCoordinateSystem: WGS 84; Event: samplingProtocol: Winkler; eventDate: 2023-05-15; Record Level: language: es; collectionID: RNC: 270; institutionCode: Universidad de la Amazonia (UDLA); basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Diagnosis

This species is distinguished from the other Probolomyrmex species by the presence of subpetiolar process well developed, ventrally concave to sub-rectangular, with the postero-ventral angle acute and directed towards the gaster; prora and protuberance on the posterior region of the first gastral tergite present. (Fig. 22 )

Distribution

This is the first record of the species for Colombia. Previously, this species had been recorded in Guyana, Peru and Venezuela. ( Oliveira and Feitosa 2019).

Biology

The specimens were collected in leaf litter in the cloud forest in the Andean-Amazonian transition zone of Caquetá.

Notes

We document here the first case for the species of an ergatoid queen (Fig. 23 ). The ergatoid queen has developed compound eyes and ocelli; further, the mesosoma is a little wider and higher than workers. The shape of the subpetiolar process in the ergatoid queen and the worker is identical, this feature being important to separate P. kelleri from any other species of this genus.

Figures

Figure 22. Probolomyrmex kelleri worker (LEUA- 00000066494) A head in frontal view; B body in dorsal view; C body in lateral view. Scale bars: 0.5 mm (A, B, C).

Figure 23. Probolomyrmex kelleri ergatoid (LEUA- 00000066495) A head in frontal view; B body in dorsal view; C body in lateral view. Scale bars: 0.5 mm (A, B, C).