The Ants of Africa
Genus Camponotus subgenus Myrmosericus
Camponotus (Myrmosericus) feae Emery

Camponotus (Myrmosericus) feae Emery)

return to key {link to the Hymenoptera Name Server} Type locality Spain, Canary Islands (replacement name for pubescens, Brullé, 1840: 84, worker; Emery, 1882: 449, illustrated, minor & major workers) Canary Is is separated as a distinct species; see the bottom of this page.


{Camponotus rufoglaucus feai} Emery (1882) described Camponotus Feae n. sp., from Alegranza I., Canary Islands, one major (illustrated right) and several minors, as follows - (from the Latin)
WORKER - TL 4.5-7 mm. Colour black; mandibles and appendages piceous rust. Subopaque; head subtly reticulate; thorax transversely rugose; gaster with fine tranverse striations, sparsely puncturate. Pubescence white and adpressed rising from puncturations; hairs white but few. Mandibles with six teeth, grossly puncturate. Clypeus carinate, anterior lobe produced, finely reticulate, opaque. Alitrunk dorsum convex; anterior metanotum flat to subconcave, propodeum humped. Petiole scale simple but enlarged, posteriorly depressed (impressed?), upper margin arcuate, somewhat truncate in the major. Gaster segments with a light posterior margin and pale hairs. Tibiae and scapes lacking hairs. This is at {original description}.

Emery's (1893c) description of Canary Island forms is at {original description}. In this he reduced "feai"" to a variety of rufoglaucus.

This remains unresolved, or may be not, as Barquin (1981) synonymized the Canary Islands varieties under C. rufoglaucus feai but Espadaler (2007) lists "Camponotus feai Emery" from El Hierro, Canary Islands, noting: "all populations from El Hierro belong to the homogeneous black phenotype; some populations from other islands show a remarkable variation in colour of head and thorax, from pure black to a splendid red".
Barquin, J. 1981. Las hormigas de Canarias. Taxonomia, ecologia y distribucion de los Formicidae. Secret. Publ. Univ. La Laguna Col. Monograf., 3, 1-584

Given that this is small, TL 4.5-7 mm; has a base colour of black, a distinct propodeal profile and a thick petiole scale, it seems justifiable to follow Espadaler and regard C. feae as a separate species.


{Camponotus feae minor}The photomontage of the type minor worker is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0905354.


{Camponotus feae dubitatis major}The photomontage of a major worker of dubitatis listed by Emery (1893c: 87) is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0905353.

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© 2014 - Brian Taylor CBiol FSB FRES
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