Forum Entomologi Italiani

Another Odontomachus queen; maybe again O. bauri

Odontomachus sp., queen, surely not bauri. Difficult to try a determination in this case without seeing characters like the chitin of the petiole, the first gastral segment and the episternum with a good microscope. So better to stay on the genus. The best option could be O. clarus, but only an option!

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Except the color, I thought it to be very similar to the queen I already published - but of course the diferences are very inconspicuous. Thanks again!!

Yes, many Odontomachus are hard to distinguish. In particular the two queen that you observed have both the same pattern of teeth on the mandibles. Maybe you noticed exactly this. But it is indeed the colour that discard O. bauri in this case. O. bauri is never reddish coloured, always dark brown.

This is a sentence published as a key from the authors of antweb.org (some of the most experienced living myrmecologist) about O. bauri: "O. bauri‘s main feature is its dark brown colour".

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