Hypoponera ragusai (Emery)

Type location Sicily (Ponera Ragusai n. sp., Emery, 1894h: 28, worker, also Emery, 1895b: 65; name changed by Emery, 1911, to ragusae; Santschi, 1907: 313, queen & ergatogyne queen, also ergatomorph male, the alate male unknown; listed in Wheeler, 1922) collected by Ragusa - see below
subspecies
santschii (Ponera ragusai Emery, var. santschii n., Emery, 1909c: 371, illustrated, worker & queen) from Algeria - see http://www.antweb.org/specimenImages.do?code=casent0903907
junior synonym
massiliensis (Bondroit, 1920a: 158, replacement name for Ponera parva n. sp., Bondroit, 1918: 85; and its synonym gyptis Santschi, 1921b: 435) from France - no images on Antweb (January 2015), (combination in Hypoponera, Baroni Urbani, 1971c: 18, see Bolton, 1995) .

Hypoponera bulawayensis (Ponera Ragusai Em. r. bulawayensis n. stirps, Forel, 1913j: 203, worker; Arnold, 1915: 80) from Zimbabwe has been raised to species by Bolton & Fisher (2011: 31); other names were synonymised by them under ragusai. Former subspecies sordida (Ponera Ragusai Emery, var. sordida nov., Santschi, 1914b: 54, worker) from Kenya, now is under Hypoponera punctatissima (Bolton & Fisher, 2011: 16)

Emery's (1894h) description is at Santschi's (1907) description of the queen and ergatomorph male are at and . Emery's (1909c) illustrated description of the type and santschii is at Forel's (1913j) description of bulawayensis is at and Arnold's (1915) translation is at Santschi's (1914b) description of sordida is at . Bondroit's (1918) description of parva is at .

Given by Bernard (1952) as from the "Old World". Wheeler (1922) listed it also from Egypt and Tanzania.

NOTE: Hypoponera lesnei (Bondroit, 1916: 212, illustrated, worker; synonymy by Bernard: 1967: 88) from France has been restored to species status by Seifert (2003b: 74). Bondroit's (1916) description of lesnei is at .

WORKER (after Bernard, 1952) - TL 2.4-2.8 mm; yellowish-brown; head straight, sides parallel; clypeus and thorax very shiny; mandibles with 4 large and one small teeth; propodeum declivity shorter than dorsum; elongated species similar to but smaller than punctatissima - see http://www.antweb.org/specimenImages.do?code=casent0915493

The photomontage is of the holotype worker; collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0102028.

Oxford University Museum specimens

Hypoponera ragusai B Taylor det.

Israel A Ionescu

9.vii.1994 Tel Aviv 32.0666667 N 34.7666667 E

.

3

The photomontage is of a specimen from Israel, courtesy of Armin Ionescu, Tel Aviv University. 

The photomontage is of a queen from Israel, courtesy of Armin Ionescu, Tel Aviv University.