Critically Endangered
Prionomyrmex macrops
Nothomyrmecia macrops
Mature colonies are very small, with only 50 to 100 individuals in each nest.
Appearance
The mandibles, clypeus (one of the sclerites that make up the "face" of an arthropod or insect), antennae and legs are pale yellow. The hairs on the body are yellow, erect and long and abundant, but on the antennae and legs they are shorter and suberect (standing almost in an erect position). Workers are strictly nocturnal and are solitary foragers, collecting arthropod prey and sweet substances such as honeydew from scale insects and other Hemiptera.
Nothomyrmecia is a medium-sized ant measuring 9.7–11 mm (0.38–0.43 in) in length.
Nothomyrmecia was first described by Australian entomologist John S.
Range and habitat
It is possible that it also occurs in Western Australia, from where it was first collected. If it does favour old-growth mallee woodland, it could have the potential for a wider range than is currently known from surveys and museum specimens. Nests are found in degraded limestone soil with Callitris trees present.
Not all colonies are found in unprotected areas. Some have been discovered in the Lake Gilles Conservation Park and the Chadinga Conservation Reserve.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
Workers are nectarivores and can be found foraging on top of Eucalyptus trees, where they search for food and prey for the larvae. Captured prey items are given to larvae, that are carnivorous.
The workers search for prey in piles of leaves, killing small arthropods among them Drosophila flies, microlepidopterans and spiderlings. Prey items are usually less than 4 mm (0.2 in) in size, and workers grab them using their mandibles and forelegs, then kill them with their sting. Nuptial flight (meaning that virgin queens and males emerge to mate) does not occur in Nothomyrmecia.
In crisis
As a result, the IUCN lists the ant as Critically Endangered. Mature colonies are very small, with only 50 to 100 individuals in each nest. In 1996, the International Union for Conservation of Nature listed Nothomyrmecia as Critically Endangered, stating that only a few small colonies were known.
This is because there is insufficient evidence to demonstrate that populations are declining. With 18 sites known for this species, and the potential for many more being discovered, there seems little immediate possibility of extinction.
Prionomyrmex macrops is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Prionomyrmex macrops, Wikidata item Q1207403. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
