Prolasius advenus

Taxobox
name = "Prolasius advenus"
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Insecta
ordo = Hymenoptera
familia = Formicidae
genus = "Prolasius"
species = "P. advenus"
binomial = "Prolasius advenus"
binomial_authority = (Fr. Smith, 1862)

"Prolasius advenus" is an ant of the family Formicidae, endemic to New Zealand, including offshore islands. It is found in native forests, nesting in soil under stones, or in or under rotting logs. "Prolasius advenus" does not have a sting. Mandibles have six teeth. Length of the worker ant is about 2.9 to 3.5 mm. The antenna has 12 segments. Coloration is usually brown.

Colonies can have hundreds of workers, and be multi-queened and complex. "Prolasius advenus" is a generalist, foraging andscavenging for small arthropods and tending mealy bugs. Food exchange (trophallaxis) takes place between workers and larvae. The developing pupae are enclosed in pale cream coloured silken cocoons.

Several associations of this ant with beetles are known. Beetle species include the following: a staphylinid ("Holotrochus" sp.), a small endemic stag beetle, "Ceratognathus passaliformis", and a pselaphid beetle, "Ecomorypora granulata". There is also an interesting association with the caterpillars of the puriri moth, "Aenetus virescens", that live in putaputaweta trees, "Carpodetus serrata". The worker ants feed on sap exposed by the wound created in the callus tissue of the tree by the moth larvae.

References

* [http://www.antweb.org/newzealand/2005WardWeta.pdf Antweb]
* [http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/research/biocons/invertebrates/ants/infosheets/hetbro_info.asp LandCare]