Global InformationLeptothorax pocahontas information
| Leptothorax pocahontas | |
|---|---|
Conservation status
| |
 Vulnerable (IUCN 2.3)[1] | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Formicidae |
| Subfamily: | Myrmicinae |
| Genus: | Leptothorax |
| Species: | L. pocahontas
|
| Binomial name | |
| Leptothorax pocahontas (Buschinger, 1979)
| |
| Synonyms | |
|
Doronomyrmex pocahontas | |
Leptothorax pocahontas (Powhatan: pocahontas = playful one) is a threatened species of ant endemic to Alberta, Canada,[2] facing a high risk of extinction.
The total length of a female ant, including the mandibles is 4 mm.[2] The chromosome number of the species is n = 18.[3]
The species is known only from its type locality,[3] Maligne Canyon, near Jasper, Alberta, Canada.[2]
It closely resembles the workerless European species, Leptothorax pacis, and having believed to be also lacking a worker caste when it was first described in 1979, was placed in the same genus (at the time, genus Doronomyrmex).[2]
The queen is highly polymorphic, differing in size, pilosity, sculpture (shininess) and colouration.[3]
The genus Doronomyrmex was synonymized with Leptothorax as a junior synonym by Heinze (1998),[4] a taxonomic action later supported by Bolton's (2003)[5] "Classification and Synopsis of Formicidae". Thus all species previously included within the genus Doronomyrmex taxon should be technically considered to belong to Leptothorax until the next taxonomic revision.
- ^ Social Insects Specialist Group (1996). "Doronomyrmex pocahontas". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 1996: e.T6811A12808387. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.1996.RLTS.T6811A12808387.en.
- ^ a b c d Buschinger, A. 1979. Doronomyrmex pocahontas, n. sp., a parasitic ant from Alberta, Canada (Hym. Formicidae). Ins. Soc. 26: 216-222. [1][permanent dead link]
- ^ a b c Buschinger, A. and J. Heinze. 1993. Doronomyrmex pocahontas: not a workerless parasite but still an enigmatic taxon (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Ins. Soc. 40: 423-432. [2]
- ^ Heinze, J. 1998 ("1995"). The origin of workerless parasites in Leptothorax (s. str.) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Psyche 102: 195-214.
- ^ Bolton, B. 2003. Synopsis and classification of Formicidae. Memoirs of the American Entomological Institute 71: 1-370.