Taxonomy of Malagasy Nesomyrmex brevicornis species-group using conventional morphology-based approach

Abstract

Here we describe the diversity of the Malagasy Nesomyrmex brevicornis-group as the final installment of series describing the complete Malagasy Nesomyrmex fauna. In the current paper introduce the N. brevicornis-group, a newly outlined species group. We split this group from one of the four former groups, N. madecassus-group (sensu Csősz and Fisher 2015). The relatively small number of individuals available within the N. brevicornis-group relative to the large number of OTUs hampers the use of sophisticated statistical techniques to evaluate the morphological data. Instead, we assess the diversity of the N. brevicornis-group via a conventional morphology-based approach relying upon non-numeric characters (shape, sculpture, color etc.) recorded by simple eye inspection. Morphometric data are used as secondary data to confirm the most probable boundaries between species, but without employing statistical analyses. We rejected prior species hypotheses imposed by the primary approach if a non-overlapping range of a single index calculated from continuous numeric traits was found between two hypothesized species. Our methods render every species in this revisionary work separable via both salient features and morphometric traits. Our approach reveals the existence of nine morphologically distinct species, Nesomyrmex brevicornis sp. n., N. brunneus sp. n., N. cingulatus sp. n., N. edentates sp. n., N. flavigaster sp. n., N. longiceps sp. n., N. minutus sp. n., N. punctaticeps sp. n., and N. sellaris sp. n.. Geographic maps showing the distribution of each species are provided, along with an updated key to workers of Malagasy Nesomyrmex species groups that includes the newly outlined N. brevicornis-group.