Lamyctes hellyeri Edgecombe & Giribet, 2003

(Order Lithobiomorpha, family Henicopidae, subfamily Henicopinae)

Check:
 
(a)  no eyes
(b)  29-33 (usually 31) antennomeres
(c)  2+2 coxosternal teeth
(d)  tibial spur on legs 1-11
(e)  2 or 3 coxal pores on legs 12-15.

Left:  Left dorsolateral view of head.
Right:  Ventral view of maxillipedes.

Lamyctes hellyeri grows to about 8 mm in body length and is uniformly yellow or orange. No males have been collected.

I discovered this species in my backyard in Penguin on 7 August 2001 and sent live and preserved specimens to Greg Edgecombe (Australian Museum) the same day. Greg and I doubt that L. hellyeri is a Tasmanian native. I found hundreds of individuals in my garden, which has grown exotic plants for many decades. When first collected, L. hellyeri was particularly abundant near colonies of (introduced) Argentine ants, on which I suspect it was feeding. We are not aware of any earlier collections of L. hellyeri, and all the similar-looking henicopids I have seen in bushland close to Penguin (and elsewhere in the Northwest) have been anopsobiines.

If L. hellyeri is indeed introduced to Tasmania, its area of origin is unknown. For the time being, the type and only known locality for this species is my street in the little town of Penguin!

Locality for L. hellyeri.  Scale bar = 100 km.
For an interactive map with more up-to-date localities, go to the mapper page.

More information:
 
Taxonomy - Edgecombe and Giribet (2003a)
Biology - Edgecombe and Giribet (2003a), Edgecombe & Giribet (2003c)