Lepisiota gracilicornis (Forel)

Type location Yemen (Acantholepis gracilicornis n. sp., Forel, 1892a: 42, in key, worker; Emery, 1893f: 257, queen) collected at Aden by Dr F. Ris - see below
race abdominalis (Acantholepis gracilicornis Forel, r. abdominalis, n. st., Forel, 1894b: 73, worker) from Ethiopia, collected at Südabessinien by Ilg - see http://www.antweb.org/specimenImages.do?code=casent0909891
worker and queen only described .

Forel's (1892a) description is on . Emery's (1893f) description of the queen is on . Forel's (1894b) description of abdominalis is on .

The photomontage of the holotype worker is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0249898

Oxford University Museum specimens

Lepisiota gracilicornis B Taylor det.	Egypt M James 2001-08	2001 Sinai 28°33' N 33°56' E	St Katherine protectorate around the town of St Katherine, in mountains above 1500m	3
Lepisiota gracilicornis B Taylor det.	Egypt J Kugler	16.ii.1981 Assuan	.	1
Lepisiota gracilicornis B Taylor det.	Egypt J Kugler	15.ix.1977 Sinai Wadi Tineh		1
Lepisiota gracilicornis B Taylor det.	Egypt J Kugler	24.iii.1969 Sinai Wadi Natzeb		1

The photomontage is of a worker collected in the Sinai Desert, Egypt, St Katherine protectorate around the town of St Katherine, in mountains above 1500m, in early 2001, by Mike James, a research student of Francis Gilbert. Collingwood (1985) described the species as from the Middle East, Arabia, "very long appendages, long thin alitrunk and brilliantly shining integument", with antennal scapes twice as long as head width. These Sinai specimens match Forel's original description and the scapes surpass the occiput by 2/3 their own length, SI (i.e SL/HW) = 240. It seems from this that the separation in Collingwood & Agosti (1996) is wrong and, hence, their definition of a separate species, Lepisiota riyadha is questionable. What seems to be true is that the species shows variable worker size within the same colony.

The photomontage is of specimens collected in Sudan, at Afad (South Ad Damazin), 11°46'0"N 34°21'0"E, by Awatif Omer, 2009.