2024/12/04 by Matthew Prebus, Nhi Nguyen, Grant Navid Doering +1 · 1 voice
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Environmental Science · #Arboreal locomotion #Biology #Ecology #Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies #Habitat #Hymenoptera #Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior #Key (lock) #Plant and animal studies #Zoology
paper · pdf · doi:10.5852/ejt.2024.970.2757
openalex publication_date 2024/12/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Although the ant genus Temnothorax is broadly distributed, extremely diverse, and contains multitudes of undescribed species, discovering new Temnothorax species in the eastern United States is rare due to the high concentration of taxonomic effort on this region. Here, we recognize and describe a new species that has consistently been misidentified in museum collections as Temnothorax ambiguus, a common inhabitant of acorn shells and leaf litter. Unlike T. ambiguus, T. caryaluteus sp. nov. nests primarily in arboreal microhabitats, especially within dead branches on live Carya and Quercus trees. We compare the morphology of T. caryaluteus sp. nov. against the congeners with similar appearance T. ambiguus and T. curvispinosus, and delineate diagnostic characters for T. caryaluteus sp. nov. Moreover, we provide an updated key to the Temnothorax species of the eastern United States.