Subfamily MYRMICINAE |
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Crematogaster lineolata , full face view of worker
(click image to enlarge). |
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Crematogaster lineolata , profile view of a worker. Note the many erect hairs on the pronotum and the roughened pronotal pleurae (click image to enlarge). |
Ants in the genus Crematogaster are often referred to as acrobat ants because of their propensity to arc the gaster upward and over the alitrunk in a manner that resembles a contortionist or acrobat. They are small, monomorphic ants. Workers have an 11-segmented antenna, the presence of variably long propodeal spines, a flattened petiole, and a somewhat heart-shaped gaster. The postpetiole is attached to the dorsal surface of the gaster, and this characteristic will differentiate this genus from other genera in our area. This species is variable in color from light brown to dark blackish brown, with relatively long propodeal spines. The pronotal pleurae is sculptured with transverse ridges or rugulae. The dorsum of the pronotum has a band of erect hairs that occur transversely with other erect hairs scattered randomly across the mesonotum. In dorsal view, the propodeal spines are long, straight, and typically diverge posteriorly, although in some specimens the spines do not noticeably diverge. Crematogaster lineolata is a very common species in both AL and MS and nests in the soil under objects or in rotting stumps in a wide variety of habitats. Links |
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Author-Joe MacGown: jmacgown@entomology.msstate.edu
The ant web site was uploaded on 6 March 2003 and was last updated on 11 September 2024
(specific pages may have different uploaded and updated dates)
Drawings and photographs by Joe MacGown (unless otherwise noted) and copyrighted by the Mississippi Entomological Museum
The development of this web site was supported in part by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, United States Department of Agriculture, under Project No. MIS-012040 and the USDA-ARS Areawide Management of Imported Fire Ant Project (Richard L. Brown, Principal Investigator).