  Type location South
Africa (Formica vestita, F. Smith, 1858b: 32, queen;
misidentification by Arnold, 1924: 694, major worker & queen) Port
Natal - see below
junior synonym braunsi (Plagiolepis Braunsi, n. sp.,
Forel
1913a: 141, worker; synonymy here) from Willowmore, Cape, Dr H Brauns - see below
 .
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NOTE: In
June 2014, in correspondence over South African specimens, Christian
Ludwig
drew my attention to the anomaly of the queen shown on Antweb
(photomontage below) as F Smith’s type of Formica vestita being an Anoplolepis queen. From the
illustrations, it appeared to be a close
match to the Anoplolepis custodiens queen in
Prins (1982). Ironically, the type worker of A. custodiens came from the same
locality, Port Natal, and was described by F Smith, as “Formica custodiens” in his 1858b
paper. So where did the error come from? Some taxonomic archaeology
took me back to Roger (1863b: 2) where he catalogued Smith's queen
under Camponotus but his
entry reads “27. ? vestitus Smith. Cat. Brit. Mus. 32. queen”. Jumping
on in time, the next appearance was in Emery (1894i: 113) where one
finds “Camponotus rufoglaucus
Jerdon sottosp. vestitus F.
Sm.. Una queen senza indicazione di localita”. So, on the basis of
coming from the same locality, Emery gave firm
status to what Roger was unsure about. Emery (1895h: 49 and
illustration) then jumped from the queen, of which there is no evidence
he saw, to the worker, with a key separation and illustration. From
that one gets the worker that I matched, from Namibia, on my webpage.
I should have spotted the wrongness when first doing the webpage. My Camponotus vestitus queen from
Uganda and the
available queens of “subspecies” match.
Now, in December 2014, I have examined the fresh
specimens shown below. The queen differs from that of Anoplolepis custodiens
in being
larger, TL ca mm, HL 2.02, HW 2.32; vs A.c. HL 1.87, HW 2.11. The
pronotum has a lower, much less domed profile, but is relatively wider
when viewed from above (A. vestita promesonotum W/L = 0.75); A. custodiens promesonotum W/L = 0.70).
The matching form of the workers associated with the fresh queen and the type worker of braunsi is obvious, thus the latter has to be placed as a junior synonym of vestita.
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The photomontage
of the holotype queen is collated from 
The photomontage
of the braunsi
type worker is collated
from 
The
photomontage is of a queen from South Africa, Oudtshoorn, ex
Christian Ludwig
The
photomontage is of an associated worker
The
photomontage is of a second worker from the South Africa, xx,
ex
Christian Ludwig
The
photomontage is of a third worker from the South Africa, xx,
ex
Christian Ludwig