Harpegnathos alperti
Harpegnathos alperti is a ponerine species of ants found in the Indomalayan bioregion. The species is known from a single specimen collected in the Philippines and described in 2016.
History and classification
The type specimen was collected in 2003 from Panicuason Village located on Mt. Isarog about east of Naga city, Luzon Island in the Philippines. The worker was officially described by myrmecologist David Emmanuel M. General of the University of the Philippines in a 2016 Halteres paper. The holotype was deposited into the National Museum of the Philippines collections as specimen #PNM13015, and to the Antweb.org database as #ANTWEB1008901. General coined the specific epithet as a patronym honoring entomologist Gary Alpert who acted as a mentor and friend.In general aspect, General considered the species is similar to Harpegnathos venator chapmani in coloration, but with exoskeletal texturing more similar to Harpegnathos venator rugosus. However, due to being unable to locate the type specimen for H. v. chapmani in the American Museum of Natural History, Natural History Museum, London, Museum of Comparative Zoology or Smithsonian Institution collections, a direct and more detailed comparison of the two taxa was unable to be performed. The H. v. chapmani type worker was collected from Mount Makiling, with General noting the need for more extensive collecting to gather specimens of Luzon Harpegnathos and shed light on the natural biology of the genus on the island.