The Ants of Africa
Genus Camponotus subgenus Tanaemyrmex
Camponotus (Tanaemyrmex) kersteni Gerstäcker

maculatus species-group
TL 8-10-12 mm plus; alitrunk profile convex in a smooth elongated curve, propodeal declivity not or poorly separable from dorsum, if the latter always much shorter than dorsum; petiole scale of major cuneiform, with convex anterior face and quite sharp dorsal margin; mostly bicoloured with alitrunk lighter and distinct light areas on gaster; dimorphic (?) minors with head narrowed posteriorly but not dramatically so and without any "neck".

Camponotus (Tanaemyrmex) kersteni Gerstäcker

return to key {link to the Hymenoptera Name Server} Type location Tanzania (Camponotus Kersteni n. sp., Gerstäcker, 1871: 355, minor worker; Santschi, 1914b: 131, major worker, queen & male) collected at Mt. Kilimanjaro (in German East Africa, thus wrongly given as Kenya by Bolton, 1995) (see Bolton, 1995) .


Gerstaecker's (1871) description is at {original description}. Forel (1899b: 309) gave comments on the status, these are at {original description}. Santschi's (1914b) description of the major, queen and male is at {original description}.

Wheeler (1922) listed it (as a subspecies of Camp. maculatus) from Tanzania, Mt. Kilimanjaro, at 2740-3000 m). Bernard (1952) wrote of two examples labelled "Nimba, Lamotte", from Guinea, adding known only from eastern Africa and Sudan.

Collingwood (1985), recording it from Saudi Arabia, noted -
HW 2.4-3.1 mm; in profile the dorsal outline of the alitrunk is more or less continuous; the body and gaster dark; gaster tergite margins with narrow pale bands; legs pale brown; occiput without hairs or restricted to the median area; plus abundant dorsal and gula hairs; sparse pubescence, body dull, in comparison with empedocles the gaster dorsum is more opaque with dense microsculpture and close pubescence. C. empedocles is known from south eastern Africa (type location Zimbabwe), plus Collingwood's record from Arabia, and has HW 3.3-3.4 mm, plus scapes and tibiae with raised fairly dense pubescence. To judge from the type minor, this may be an incorrect description


{Camponotus kersteni major}The photomontage of the type minor worker is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0905285.

Contents
© 2007, 2013, 2014 - Brian Taylor CBiol FSB FRES
11, Grazingfield, Wilford, Nottingham, NG11 7FN, U.K.

href="camponotus_kersteni.htm"