Stigmatomma zwaluwenburgi Williams 1946

Stigmatomma zwaluwenburgi Williams, 1946 Materials Type status: Other material. Occurrence: lifeStage: 1 gyne; occurrenceID: 5D3C472C-58DB-532D-AE22-FF2B4CB1C90E; Location: island: La Réunion; country: France; locality: Petite-Île; verbatimElevation: 90 m; decimalLatitude: - 21.35919; decimalLongitude: 55.54150; Identification: identifiedBy: T. Ramage; D. Carval; Event: samplingProtocol: interception trap; verbatimEventDate: 22. III. 2023; habitat: sugarcane field; Record Level: institutionCode: CAS Type status: Other material. Occurrence: lifeStage: 1 gyne; occurrenceID: 6E457803-4A96-5003-8C0A-14A4B98D3BA3; Location: island: La Réunion; country: France; locality: Petite-Île; verbatimElevation: 105 m; decimalLatitude: - 21.35389; decimalLongitude: 55.74056; Identification: identifiedBy: D. Carval; T. Ramage; Event: samplingProtocol: interception trap; verbatimEventDate: 22. III. 2023; habitat: sugarcane field; Record Level: institutionCode: CAS Type status: Other material. Occurrence: lifeStage: 1 gyne; occurrenceID: E4A115B6-C0A5-5FE2-977F-26C4E4CA4748; Location: island: La Réunion; country: France; locality: Petite-Île; verbatimElevation: 560 m; decimalLatitude: - 21.35389; decimalLongitude: 55.74056; Identification: identifiedBy: D. Carval; T. Ramage; Event: samplingProtocol: interception trap; verbatimEventDate: 19. IV. 2023; habitat: sugarcane field; Record Level: institutionCode: CAS Type status: Other material. Occurrence: lifeStage: 1 gyne; occurrenceID: 83B7795C-8243-5C12-A94E-EFA81B7D162A; Location: island: La Réunion; country: France; locality: Petite-Île; verbatimElevation: 198 m; decimalLatitude: - 21.35331; decimalLongitude: 55.54297; Identification: identifiedBy: D. Carval; T. Ramage; Event: samplingProtocol: interception trap; verbatimEventDate: 04. I. 2023; habitat: sugarcane field; Record Level: institutionCode: C3P; collectionCode: MGAU 05446_010 Type status: Other material. Occurrence: lifeStage: 1 gyne; occurrenceID: 2AF3E782-38BA-559B-B408-1CBB82E8D184; Location: island: La Réunion; country: France; locality: Petite-Île; verbatimElevation: 200 m; decimalLatitude: - 21.35322; decimalLongitude: 55.54219; Identification: identifiedBy: D. Carval; T. Ramage; Event: samplingProtocol: interception trap; verbatimEventDate: 06. XII. 2023; habitat: sugarcane field; Record Level: institutionCode: NHM Type status: Other material. Occurrence: lifeStage: 1 gyne; occurrenceID: D4272B29-E7FE-5CB7-AAE1-DEFFC30D593F; Location: island: La Réunion; country: France; locality: Petite-Île; verbatimElevation: 198 m; decimalLatitude: - 21.35331; decimalLongitude: 55.54297; Identification: identifiedBy: D. Carval; T. Ramage; Event: samplingProtocol: interception trap; verbatimEventDate: 03. I. 2024; habitat: sugarcane field; Record Level: institutionCode: CAS Type status: Other material. Occurrence: lifeStage: 1 gyne; occurrenceID: E65F5646-C6EB-5D9E-AAE8-CF9EA0078ECE; Location: island: La Réunion; country: France; locality: Petite-Île; verbatimElevation: 378 m; decimalLatitude: - 21.34378; decimalLongitude: 55.54950; Identification: identifiedBy: D. Carval; T. Ramage; Event: samplingProtocol: interception trap; verbatimEventDate: 28. II. 2024; habitat: sugarcane field; Record Level: institutionCode: CAS Distribution To our knowledge, the specimens from La Réunion are the first gynes collected for this species from the Malagasy Region. As the gyne of S. zwaluwenburgi is not known, we cannot be certain the gynes collected in Réunion Island belong to this species, but they match well with workers of S. zwaluwenburgi (Fig. 2). This species has been reported from very few places: Hawaii (Williams 1946), Christmas Island (Framenau and Thomas 2008), Fiji (Sarnat 2009) and Hong Kong (Hamer et al. 2023). The native range of this species remains a conundrum, but an east Asian origin seems likely (Ward and Fisher 2016, Hamer et al. 2023). Ecology The species has been very rarely collected and its ecology is little known. As for our specimens, the type material of S. zwaluwenburgi was collected within a sugar cane field (Williams 1946). The specimens from Fiji were collected in the litter of a disturbed forest (AntWeb 2024) and Hamer et al. (2023) collected specimens from Signal Hill Gardens, an urbanised area of Hong Kong. This cryptobiotic ant is a soil-dwelling species that tolerates anthropogenised habitats.