Camponotus (Myrmopiromis) niveosetosus Mayr

Type location South Africa (Camponotus niveosetosus n. sp., Mayr, 1862: 665, range of sized workers; Mayr, 1866b: 885, queen) - see below
subspecies
irredux (Camponotus niveosetosus Mayr subsp. irredux n. subsp., Forel, 1910f: 30, range of sized workers) South Africa, Natal, R Wroughton - see below
madagascarensis (Camponotus niveosetosus Mayr race madagascarensis n. stirps, Forel, 1886c: civ, worker) Madagascar, Grandidier
.

Mayr's (1862) description is at ; with an expanded description (Mayr, 1865: 35), plus an illustration, at . Forel's (1910f) description of irredux is at ; Arnold (1922: 658) gave a translation with notes on irredux; this is at ;

Forel (1886c) had the following on madagascarensis new strain - Worker distinguished from typical by - clypeus with carina, also setiform pilosity and pubescence slightly more yellow and much more abundant; body more matt and gaster segments strongly bordered with a more distinct yellow. From Madagascar collected by M Grandidier.

In a description of the new species radovae also from Madagascar, Forel (1886c) noted the niveosetosus gaster as having very fine and dense striations; pilosity being strong but blunt; radovae being entirely black but rather more shiny than niveosetosus. The dorsal pronotum in both is clearly bordered on the anterior edges, both being similar to fulvopilosus De Geer (from South Africa). TL for radovae is 9 mm, larger than niveosetosus but the mandibles are smaller.

The only locations not in southern Africa in Wheeler (1922) are from Pemba, Tanzania and Grand Comoro.

From Ghana on and under cocoa and on mistletoe at the Mampong Cemetery Farm, plus in 52 of his 168 cocoa canopy samples, by Room (1971, 1975). Room (1971) found it to be positively associated with Crematogaster africana and Crematogaster clariventris. He also found it to rank 17th in terms of occurrence on mistletoe plants (19/175 samples) (Room, 1972a). I strongly suspect that this was a misidentification, as the type locations of all but one Myrmopiromis species are from South Africa or Madagascar; the exception is from Sudan.

The photograph left is a specimen of Camponotus niveosetosus on a Watsonia flower from Knysna, South Africa and is reduced from the superb Myrmecos.net original taken by Alex Wild (click to see original).

The photomontage of the type major worker is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0915602

The photomontage of the irredux type major worker is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0910456

The photomontage of the irredux type minor worker is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0910457

Oxford University Museum specimens

Camponotus (Myrmopiromis) niveosetosus B Taylor det.

South Africa Peter Hlavác

25-26.i.2004 Grootvadersbosch 33°59.39' S 20°48.32' E

Western Cape, Grootvadersbosch N.R., 350 m

2

The photomontage is of two minor specimens from South Africa, Western Cape, Grootvadersbosch N.R.; collector Peter Hlavác.

The specimens in these field photographs were taken in Pretoria, South Africa, by Joan Young; nos 100-2751, - 2753 and - 2755

J Young; nos. 101-6189, 6192, 6193, 6194, 6195 and 6198