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Student 10-Minute Paper

Systematics, Evolution, and Biodiversity

Student Competition

Student

Undergrad Competition SysEB: Biodiversity and Morphology

Describing Nylanderia: Utilizing morphocharacters to delimit species boundaries and identify species level diversity

Monday, November 6, 2023
8:12 AM – 8:24 AM ET
Location: Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Chesapeake J-K
In-Person Student Competition
Globalization has brought radical change to Earth’s biota due to factors that include the introduction of alien species to new locales, often to the detriment of native organisms. One such group of organisms that find opportunity in the unprecedented would stand to be Nylanderia, a cosmopolitan genus of ants notorious for its resistance to taxonomic identification. The challenges to identifying Nylanderia include a prevalence of subtly distinct species, significant morphological variation at and above the species level, and globetrotting invaders within the genus, hindering species-level identification. Using visual analysis software and morphological analytic techniques, we aimed to identify 55 specimens of Nylanderia using morphological characters to determine species boundaries, conduct species delimitation, and identify critical qualitative and quantitative morpho-characters to assist in the identification of visually similar species within Nylanderia. One outcome of this study would be the proposition of a novel species tentatively referred to as “21c”, a small-bodied ant bearing a resemblance to N. guatemalensis itinerans evidenced from 11 specimens ranging from the gulf coast of Mexico to the southern tip of Costa Rica. Further exploration into this genus becomes critical in an increasingly interconnected world where inaccurately described species identification may hinder conservation goals and cause unnecessary ecological damage as alien species find pathways into increasingly disturbed ecosystems. Ultimately, we found evidence for 11 novel species within the genus and an addition to the N. guatemalensis complex alongside the delimitation and the expansion of character states known among N. guatemalensis and N. austroccidua specimens.