Melophorus

Melophorus bagoti, copyright Antoine Wystrach.

Belongs within: Melophorini.

Melophorus, furnace ants, is a genus of ants endemic to Australia, many species of which are adapted to foraging at high temperatures. In the honeypot ant M. bagoti, the colony includes specialised replete workers that do not forage themselves but remain largely immobile in the nest, caching food received from foraging workers in their abdomen.

See also: Ants go out in the noonday sun.

Characters (from Heterick 2009): Antenna with 12 segments; antennal insertions abutting posterior margin of clypeus; clypeus and underside of head and mandibles usually with profuse, long, curved hairs; metapleural gland present; propodeal spiracle slit- or comma-like.

Melophorus Lubbock 1883 [incl. Erimelophorus Wheeler 1935, Trichomelophorus Wheeler 1935] TB85
    |--*M. bagoti Lubbock 1883 TB85
    |--M. aeneovirens (Lowne 1865) [=Formica aeneovirens] TB85
    |--M. biroi Forel 1907 TB85
    |--M. bruneus McAreavey 1949 [=M. brunea] TB85
    |--M. constans Santschi 1928 TB85
    |--M. curtus Forel 1902 TB85
    |--M. fieldi Forel 1910 TB85
    |    |--M. f. fieldi TB85
    |    |--M. f. major Forel 1915 TB85
    |    `--M. f. propinqua Viehmeyer 1925 TB85
    |--M. fulvihirtus Clark 1941 TB85
    |--M. hirsutus Forel 1902 [=M. (*Trichomelophorus) hirsutus] TB85
    |--M. insularis Wheeler 1934 TB85
    |--M. iridescens (Emery 1887) [=Myrmecocystus iridescens] TB85
    |    |--M. i. iridescens TB85
    |    |--M. i. fraudatrix Forel 1915 TB85
    |    `--M. i. froggatti Forel 1902 TB85
    |--M. laticeps Wheeler 1915 TB85
    |--M. ludius Forel 1902 TB85
    |    |--M. l. ludius TB85
    |    `--M. l. sulla Forel 1910 TB85
    |--M. majeri H09
    |--M. marius Forel 1910 TB85
    |--M. mjobergi Forel 1915 TB85
    |--M. omniparens Forel 1915 TB85
    |--M. pillipes Santschi 1919 TB85
    |--M. potteri McAreavey 1947 TB85
    |--M. scipio Forel 1915 TB85
    |--M. turneri Forel 1910 TB85
    |    |--M. t. turneri TB85
    |    |--M. t. aesopus Forel 1910 TB85
    |    |--M. t. candidus Santschi 1919 [=M. turneri candida] TB85
    |    `--M. t. perthensis Wheeler 1934 TB85
    `--M. wheeleri Forel 1910 [=M. (*Erimelophorus) wheeleri] TB85

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[H09] Heterick, B. E. 2009. A guide to the ants of south-western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 76: 1–206.

[TB85] Taylor, R. W., & D. R. Brown. 1985. Formicoidea. In: Walton, D. W. (ed.) Zoological Catalogue of Australia vol. 2. Hymenoptera: Formicoidea, Vespoidea and Sphecoidea pp. 1–149. Australian Government Publishing Service: Canberra.

Last updated: 31 May 2020.