Lepisiota nigra (Dalla Torre)

  Type location Italy (Acantholepis frauenfeldi var nigra Em., Dalla Torre, 1893: 171, all forms; species status Zimmermann, 1935: 45; confirmed by Agosti & Collingwood, 1987a: 57) all forms described - see below
Junior synonym splendens (Acantholepis frauenfeldi Mayr var splendens nova., Karavaiev, 1912b: 586, worker & queen; raised to species by Agosti & Collingwood, 1987a: 57; synonymy by Salata & Borowiec, 2018c) type location Greece, Crete - see below.

Dalla Torre's (1893) paper simply provides a list of names; this is on . The name nigra is ascribed to Emery (1878b: 46; 1881b: 527; and it appears by letter to Dalla Torre - this is on . Karavaiev (1912a: 15) referred to it in his description of Lepisiota nigrescens, this is on , his drawing of the petiole shape has it as wider than that of nigrescens.

From Emery (1878b) it seems clear that nigra was assigned to black specimens from desert areas with workers TL 2.8-3.0 mm. In his key, Finzi (1936: 188) noted - petiole scale large (bipartita type); maximum width at about about double the depth of the incision of the scale. Tarbinsky (1976: 129) considered nigra and frauenfeldi kassanasi providing illustrations of the nigra sexual stages; the text, however, is in Russian.

Emery (1881b: 572) reported it from Yemen, Aden. Collingwood & Agosti (1996: 368) had records from Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates.

Egypt records - Finzi (1936: 186) citing Menozzi (1929e: 128), which was one worker from Sinai, at Wadi Tarfa, collected by F S Bodenheimer; Emery record in Mohamed et al (2001).

The photomontage of the (presumably) type worker is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0905148

Lepisiota splendens (Karavaiev)

Type location Greece (Acantholepis frauenfeldi Mayr var splendens nova., Karavaiev, 1912b: 586, worker & queen; raised to species by Agosti & Collingwood, 1987a: 57) Crete.

WORKER - TL 2.5 mm; scapes long SI > 190; petiole narrow, very shiny; propodeum with distinct spines; brown-black, appendages more brown.

Karavaiev's (1912b) description is on

Egypt records - (Finzi, 1936: 186) sent to Finzi by Andres, series of workers from Heliopolis, xi.1930, identical to type from Crete & Corfu.

The photomontage of a worker from the BMNH collection is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0906265.