| 1a. | Small, brownish, no obvious sculpture, petiole lacking a scale | Tapinoma sessile |
| 1b. | Black body, scale on petiole convex | 2 (Dolichoderus) |
| | | |
| 2a. | Bicolored: head and thorax red; gaster black | D. mariae |
| 2b. | Not bicolored | 3 |
| | | |
| 3a. | Scape with more than 10 erect hairs | D. plagiatus |
| 3b. | Scape without hairs; head smooth and shiny | 4 |
| | | |
| 4a. | Mesoscutum and mesopleuron punctate; petiole longer than wide | D. pustulatus |
| 4b. | Mesoscutum and mesopleuron shining; first gastric tergite with 10+ hairs, petiole subquadrate | D. taschenbergi |
