quinata & smythiessi groups

Eguchi (2001) proposes two species groups: P. smythiesii group and P. quinata​ group. Our tree shows Borneo species in both groups. We could either lump these into a single sp. group or split the taxa into two groups.

3) Indo-Chinese and Indo-Malayan (represented by P. longipes and P. tjibodana) P. longipes is distributed in the Indo-Chinese and Indo-Malayan subregions, and found in forest habitats (including seasonal forests in Indochina as well as true tropical rainforests). Previous authors recognised several "subspecies" in P. longipes: nominal plus conicollis from Sumatra (Emery, 1900), continentis from Burma (Forel, 1911a), pseudola from Sumatra (Forel, 1915). However, the exact status of these fonns has not been fully resolved. I now feel the need to revise this group in detail based on molecular and morphological data. I have tentatively recognised a P. smythiesii group which consists of Emery's "especes de l'Inde" of "the genus Ceratopheidole" (Emery, 1922), i.e., P smythiesii (widespread in the Indo-Chinese subregion) and its subsp. bengalensis (Bengal), P bhavanae (Sikkim), P. emmae (Java) and P. bluntschlii (S. Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Java; Fig. 57). I include in this group P. gatesi, which is widespread in the Indo-Chinese subregion, and was originally described under Aphaenogaster by Wheeler (1927a), then transferred to Pheidole by Brown (1967). The group is characterised by a 4-segmented antennal club, but its monophyly has not yet been established. It is Indo-Chinese and Indo-Malayan in distribution, but interestingly no species occurs in Borneo. Examinations of available specimens, including type materials, of the abovementioned forms, excluding P. emmae (of which the type material has apparently been lost), suggest that P. bluntschlii is an atypical member in the group and characterised by a combination of the following characteristics: anterior margin of clypeus of the minor emarginate medially in full-face view; hypostoma of the major unarmed medially; low subpetiolar process present in the major; radial cell of the male wing completely closed. P. bluntschlii is very similar to species of the P. quinata group in its general features, except in the segmentation of antennal club and the condition of processes on hypostoma of the major. The male of P. sabahna, belonging to the P. quinata group, also has a completely closed radial cell (cf. Eguchi, 20(0), a condition not common in Asian species of Pheidole as far as I know. Thus there is a possibility that the P. quinata group is phylogenetically closest to P. bluntschlii, and is the Bornean representative (Fig. 58) of the P. smythiesii group in a wide sense. Anyway, a careful phylogenetic reconstruction is required for members of the P. smythiesii group and P. quinata group (and also P. granulata group, namely, "especes Americaines" of "Ceratopheidole" (Emery, 1922» prior to detailed biogeographical analysis. 

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