Camponotus (Myrmosericus) vestitus (F. Smith)

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 very 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. Now (December 2014) with fresh Anoplolepis queen and associated workers, I have concluded that Anoplolepis vestita is separable from A, custodiens.

But where did the Camponotus 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) on ants collected in Mozambique by Cav. Fornasini and sent to Bologna, where one finds “Camponotus rufoglaucus Jerdon sottosp. vestitus F. Sm.. Una queen senza indicazione di localita”. So Emery, I conjecture, identified a Camponotus queen that appeared to match the general colour of Smith's description. Thus, 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, see below. I should have spotted the wrongness when first doing this page. My Camponotus vestitus queen from Uganda and the available queens of “subspecies” match.

The most senior available replacement name for the present "Camponotus vestitus appears to be Camponotus pectita Santschi 1911, which is the only variety of “vestitus” listed by Emery (1925b: 106) in his catalogue. That, however, is complicated by the evidence of distinct groups as I discuss further below.

Listing as in Bolton (1995): Type location South Africa (Formica vestita, F. Smith, 1858b: 32, queen; Arnold, 1924: 694, major and minor workers & queen) Port Natal - the Smith (Anoplolepis queen is shown below) but Antweb does not have images of the Arnold specimens.
subspecies
anthracinus (Camponotus (Myrmosericus) vestitus Sm. var. anthracinus n. var., Santschi, 1930a: 74, major & minor workers) Angola, Benguela, J Cruchet - see below
bombycinus (Camponotus (Myrmosericus) vestitus Sm. stirps bombycinus n. st., Santschi, 1930b: 77. worker) Angola, Chimporo - minor see http://www.antweb.org/specimenImages.do?code=casent0911782
intuens (Camponotus rufoglaucus Jerdon subsp. cinctellus Gerst. v. intuens n. var., Forel, 1909b: 67; Santschi, 1926b: 258, worker) Angola - see below
pectitus (Camponotus rufoglaucus Jerd. stirps vestitus Sm. v. pectita n. var., Santschi, 1911g: 212, unavailable name; Santschi, 1930a: 74, major & minor workers & queen) Angola, Benguela, J Cruchet - see below
comptus (Camponotus (Myrmosericus) vestitus Sm. v. comptus n. var., Santschi, 1926b: 259, queen; 1930a: 76, male) Ivory Coast, Dimbroko, Le Moult - queen see below
lujai (Camponotus (Myrmosericus) vestitus Sm. var. lujai n. var., Santschi, 1930a: 75, major worker & male) Zaïre, Kondué, E Luja - see http://www.antweb.org/specimenImages.do?code=casent0911784
perpectitus (Camponotus (Myrmosericus) vestitus Sm. v. perpectitus n. var., Santschi, 1926b: 259, queen) Benin, Kouandé, Desanti - see below
strophiatus (Camponotus (Myrmosericus) vestitus Sm. v. strophiatus n. var., Santschi, 1926b: 259, minor worker) South Africa, Cape Town, Reichensperger - see below
major & minor workers & queen described (see Bolton, 1995) .

F Smith's (1858b) description is at . Arnold (1924: 694) provided an expanded description; this is at - . Forel's (1909b) description of intuens is at . Santschi's (1911g) description of pectita is at . Santschi's (1926b) descriptions of comptus, perpectitus and strophiatus are at . Santschi's (1930a) description of lujai and a note on vestitus are at , and his (1930a) description of pectitus and anthracinus are at . Santschi's (1930b) description of bombycinus is at .

Forel's (1909b) description of intuens (comparison with rufoglaucus ssp cinctellus; the latter now being as species, Camponotus cinctellus, in its own right, type location Mozambique) was: TL 4.3-6; MAJOR - scape surpassing the occiput by no more than twice its width. Head less enlarged behind. Yellow border to gastral segments very narrow. Colour black; posterior of head, mandibles, funiculi and legs reddish. Otherwise as cinctellus, of which it is a small variety. Specimens from Benguela, Angola, by Creighton Wellman.

Wheeler (1922) also listed it from Cameroun (at Mundame, by Conradt) and Zaïre (several localities but all specimens found in the stomachs of toads).

Bernard (1952) reported this species, so common in the plains of French West Africa, was represented in the Mt. Nimba, Guinea, collections only by several workers from Kéoulenta and N'Zo.

Lévieux (1983a), noted its presence in Ivory Coast savannah, at Ferkéssédougo, where it was preyed on by Myrmicaria opaciventris (as nitidans).

The photomontage of the holotype (Anoplolepis) queen is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0903234

From the above consideration and the Antweb images now available (posted April-May 2014) the forms listed appear to fall into three distinct groups, as follows:
The dull red South African form; as described by Arnold (1924: 694), strophiatus and the Namibia workers shown below. Also two identical queens, perpectitus and comptus, both West African; matched by the OUMNH Uganda queen.

Dark forms - comprising the identical anthracinus, intuens, lujae and pectitus. All from Angola, other than lujae from Zaïre, Kondué. 

Entirely separate and probably unrelated is the bombycinus minor from Angola, although listed by Santschi (1930b) as a stirps of vestitus the label reads "C. rufoglaucus bombycinus type Sants.".

Dull red forms - appearing to match the workers described by Arnold (1924: 694) are strophiatus and the Namibia workers shown below. These appear to be similar to Camponotus cosmicus but that is smaller and has a more more rounded head in full face view.

The photomontage of the strophiatus type major is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0911789.

The photomontage is of a major worker collected from Namibia, Caprivi Park; collectors Mann & Marais.

The photomontage is of a second major worker collected from Namibia, as above

The photomontage is of a minor worker collected from Namibia, Caprivi Park, as above.

Queens - perpectitus and comptus, matched by the Uganda queen.

The photomontage of the type perpectitus queen  is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0911786. See also the comptus queen at http://www.antweb.org/specimenImages.do?code=casent0911783

The photomontage is of a queen collected in Uganda, Entebbe; collector C A Wiggins; OUMNH

Oxford University Museum specimens

Camponotus (Myrmosericus) vestitus B Taylor det.	Namibia D J Mann OUMNH-2006-093	15.xii.1999 Caprivi Park 17°46'56" S 23°16'31" E	Immelmann runway, 4 km W Dead millipede baited PF trap coll. Mann & Marais 2 majors, 13 minors	15
Camponotus (Myrmosericus) vestitus B Taylor det.	Botswana King 112	Xakanaxa Camp 19.11.01 S 23.24.30 E	961 m Forest Nesting under log	1
Camponotus (Myrmosericus) vestitus B Taylor det. Queen	Uganda C A Wiggins	5.vii-7.viii.1909 Entebbe 0°02'40"N 32°27'57"E	ca 3800' asl woodland by lake shore	1

Dark forms - comprising the identical anthracinus, intuens, lujae and pectitus. Of these, the major worker is known for pectitus.  The identical larger workers of anthracinus (see http://www.antweb.org/specimenImages.do?code=casent0911780), intuens (see http://www.antweb.org/specimenImages.do?code=casent0910320) and lujae (see http://www.antweb.org/specimenImages.do?code=casent0911784) all appear to be media workers.

The photomontage of the type major of pectitus is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0911786.

The photomontage of the type minor of pectitus is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0911787.

It now is quite clear that the Soudano-savannah form as shown below is quite distinct.

Mike Lush (http://sifolinia.blogspot.com/2008/03/camponotus-vestitus-cf-subsp-pectitus.html) has written "C. cosmicus was one of the species that I checked when I visited the London Natural History Museum, as the holotype is there. C. cosmicus is a large and fairly stocky ant, even the minors, unlike my specimens. I was also able to check C. vestitus subsp. pectitus, which has all the right features (divergent pubescence on the gaster, same number of setae on the mesosoma, same propodeum shape) and differs only slightly in the colour of the head. Arnold (1924) stated that Smith's (1858) description of C. cosmicus is useless, and it appears as though he is right. However, none of the authors who have written about C. cosmicus picked up on what I believe is probably the most significant characteristic, as all specimens in the museum had many erect setae on the ventral surface of the head. I can also add that C. cosmicus is predominantly very dark red (not black), with the propodeum rounding smoothly from the metanotal groove, less divergent pubescence on the gaster and a greater number of setae on the mesosoma. [See ../camponotus_cosmicus/camponotus_cosmicus.htm]

So, maybe it is C. vestitus subsp. pectitus. It gets complicated because Bolton (1995) states that Santschi (1926) suggested that C. vestitus subsp. pectitus and C. vestitus subsp. intuens are the same, but at no point do they appear to have been properly synonymised. Reading Santschi's statement, it seems pretty clear that he has no doubt, so I can only assume that Bolton did not synonymise it because the description of C. vestitus subsp. pectitus post dates this statement! Forel's (1909) description of C. vestitus subsp. intuens is just as ambiguous as the descriptions of C. cosmicus and C. vestitus subsp. pectitus.

Update Nov 2008: My specimens have now been compared with the type specimens from the Naturhistorisches Museum Basel. This allowed me to confirm that they are very clearly C. vestitus subsp. intuens - a completely identical match. Possibly the colour of the head is the key feature in discriminating these subspecies. I also showed my specimens to Cedric Collingwood, who claimed them to be C. jizani. This is a species from the Middle East, though he admitted that the only reason he named it thus was because he didn't know what else to call it! Possibly, C. jizani is a junior synonym of C. vestitus subsp. intuens or C. vestitus. This species was collected a number of times only in the grounds of the hotel we were staying at in Kololi, Gambia. Here it could be found nesting in turret nests, so named because there were steep 'craters' of sand piled around the nest entrances, up to about an inch high. These are described by Arnold (op. cit.) for C. vestitus subsp. pectitus, which he states is rare and found nesting in sandy soils. He then describes, 'nest-entrances[s] surrounded by a circular, high and sharp-edged crater... This form of crater is distinctive of this insect'".

The photomontage is of a minor worker from Dakar, Senegal, collector David King.

The photomontage is of a minor worker from Sudan, collector Awatif Omer (Sudan 19).

Oxford University Museum specimens

Camponotus (Myrmosericus) vestitus B Taylor det.	Senegal David King King 01-08	19.ix.2006 Dakar 14°44'48" N 17°31'35" E	elev 9 m asl	1
Camponotus (Myrmosericus) vestitus B Taylor det.	Senegal Lamine Diamé 57	2012 Doyene-KS 14°46'N 17°07'W	Sébikotane S. saiche tube 03 minor	1
Camponotus (Myrmosericus) vestitus B Taylor det.	Mali Z Yefremova & V Kravchenko	xii.2010 Dogon 14°21' N 03°37' W	Bandiagara malaise trap minors	3
Camponotus (Myrmosericus) vestitus B Taylor det.	Sudan Awatif Omer 19	2012 Atbara 17°22' N 34°07' E	River Nile Minor worker ? northern/sahel form exact match for Senegal worker	1
Camponotus (Myrmosericus) vestitus B Taylor det.	Sudan Awatif Omer 2013.02.01	2013 Abu Hijar 12˚52' N 34˚0' E	minor workers	2
Camponotus (Myrmosericus) vestitus B Taylor det.	Sudan Awatif Omer 2013.02.11	2013 Abu Hijar 12˚52' N 34˚0' E	minor workers	1
Camponotus (Myrmosericus) vestitus B Taylor det.	Sudan Awatif Omer 2013.02.15	2013 Sinja 13˚09' N 33˚55'60" E	minor workers	1
Camponotus (Myrmosericus) vestitus B Taylor det.	Sudan Awatif Omer 2013.02.22	2013 Abu Hijar 12˚52' N 34˚0' E	minor workers	1
Camponotus (Myrmosericus) vestitus B Taylor det.	Sudan Awatif Omer 2013.02.27	2013 Abu Hijar 12˚52' N 34˚0' E	minor workers	2