Oecophylla smaragdina (Fabricius)

Type location India (Formica smaragdina, Fabricius, 1775: 828, queen; Jerdon, 1851: 121, worker & male) - no images on Antweb (October 2014)
subspecies (in Bolton, 1995: 298)
fuscoides (Karavaiev, 1933a: 315, worker) from Java - no images on Antweb (October 2014)
gracilior (Forel, 1911b: 208, worker & queen) from Java - see below
gracillima (Emery, 1893a: 195, worker) from Indonesia - see http://www.antweb.org/specimenImages.do?code=casent0905175
selebensis (Emery, 1893a: 195, worker) from Sulawesi - see http://www.antweb.org/specimenImages.do?code=casent0905173
subnitida (Emery, 1892d: 565, worker) from New Guinea - see http://www.antweb.org/specimenImages.do?code=casent0905174
junior synonyms
viridis (Formica viridis, Kirby, 1819: 478, worker; synonymy F Smith, 1857a: 53; Taylor & Brown, 1985:127) from Australia - - no images on Antweb (October 2014)
macra (Guérin-Méneville, 1831, illustrated, worker) from "Offack" - no images on Antweb (October 2014)
virescens (Fabricius, 1775: 392, worker) from Australia - no images on Antweb (October 2014)
and zonata (Guérin-Méneville, 1831: 205, queen) from "Port Praslin" - no images on Antweb (October 2014).

Jerdon's (1851) description is at .

Bingham (1903: 310) gave descriptions of smaragdina (illustrated), from India, and virescens - these are at .

Modern studies indicate that "Oecophylla smaragdina" is a conglomeration of species and not what some authors like to refer to as a "plastic" species.

Wilson & Taylor (1964, Fig 1) gave good drawings of the major and minor of specimens from the Philippines (in the Wheeler collection, Wilson, 1953), whereas the graph of size range was of specimens from upper Assam.

The photomontage of the gracilior type major worker is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0909940.

The photomontage of a major worker from Thailand is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0173646.

See also: the images on Antweb at http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0010656

Gary Alpert's photographs on "Discover Life" at http://pick5.pick.uga.edu/mp/20q?search=Oecophylla+smaragdina, from the Philippines, 2004.

The photomontage of a queen from Thailand is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0173646".

Recently, I was sent a very interesting small book by Paul van Mele and Nguyen Thi Thu Cuc. This describes and encourages the use of Weaver ants, primarily Oecophylla smaragdina in South Asia, for the biological control of pests, particularly in citrus orchards. It is well-written and well-produced, with many excellent illustrations, of which the one on the right is edited from page 34 of the book (it is used also for the comparative montage at the top of this page).

Reference - Van Mele, P. and Cuc, N.T.T. (2003) Ants as Friends: Improving your Tree Crops with Weaver Ants (pub CABI Bioscience, pp 67)