Hypoponera schauinslandi (Emery)

Type location Hawaii (Ponera punctatissima subsp. schauinslandi, Emery, 1899d: 439) from Laysan Island, collector Prof. Schauinsland (?); junior synonyms aemula (Ponera dulcis var. aemula, Santschi, 1911c: 351, worker; synonymy Seifert, 2003b: 69) from Tanzania, Kilimanjaro, cultivated area, alt 1400m, collector Ch. Alluaud; bondrioti (Ponera ergatandria Forel subsp. Bondroiti n. subsp., Forel, 1911c: 285, all forms; synonymy Seifert, 2003b: 69) from Belgium, Brussels, hothouse in the Botanic Gardens. .

Separated from Hypoponera punctatissima by Seifert (2003b: 61 ff).

Emery's (1899d) description is at . Forel's (1911c) description of bondroiti is at . Santschi's (1911c) description of Ponera dulcis For., var. aemula, nov. is at . Santschi's (1914b) reattribution of aemula to "Ponera coarctata Latr. boerorum Forel, var. aemula Santschi" is at .

Seifert (2003b: 66) lists many specimens from hothouses in Europe. Other than the type location on Laysan Island, Hawaii, the only tropical locations were Java, Cibodas; Tanzania, Kilimandjaro, Kiboscho, 1400 m, 1904, type H. aemula; and, Victoria: Nyanza, Acip. di. Sesse, Bugala, 1908. Seifert gave no other details of the last and no reference.

The only Hypoponera records from Bugala, Sesse Island, Lake Victoria, Uganda (not Tanzania) that I know of were published by Menozzi (1933a) from ants collected by Bayon. Those included "Ponera dulcis Forel", many workers and some queens. Menozzi gave no dates for the ant collections but noted that Dr E Bayon resided in Uganda. In an earlier paper Menozzi (1924b) described Pseudolasius bayoni, and gave the collection details for that (together with other species) as collected at Bugala by Dr E Bayon in 1908. Seifert makes no reference to Hypoponera dulcis (Forel, 1907a), type location Tanzania.

Seifert (2003b) unfortunately chose to use a set of different measurements, or at least to use different names for the measurements. Thus -
CL = maximum cephalic length in median line (i.e similar to HL but taken from the lowest point of any concavity of the occipital margin to the upper clypeal prtrusion
CW = maximum cephalic width, i.e = HW
CS = cephalic index, arithmetic mean of CL and CW
Eyepos = difference between a posterior reference point, apparently where a transverse line from the eye centres transect the median longitudinal line of the head

Nigeria specimens (as Hypoponera punctatissina, Taylor, 1976: 21). WORKER. TL 2.46 mm, HL 0.58, HW 0.47, SL 0.39, PW 0.34
Seifert measurements: CS = 525 CL/CW 123 SL/CS = 0.742)
Colour dark yellow-brown, shiny with dense pilosity. Eyes absent. Metanotal groove distinct.
I collected it from in an old tree stump, in dead wood and in soil, some 5-7 cm deep, the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria, Idi Ayunre.

Possibly, or even probably, the species reported as H. punctatissima as found in Ghana in open ground under Lantana tangle; and from leaf litter and nesting in dead wood on the ground under cocoa at the Mampong Cemetery farm (Room, 1971). This likelihood may also relate to the findings Wheeler (1922) listed from Guinea (Conakry, by F. Silvestri) and Nigeria (Olokemeji and Lagos, by F. Silvestri).

The photomontage of a purported Hypoponera schauinslandi specimen is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0173181&shot=p1&project=

The photomontage of a purported Hypoponera schauinslandi queen is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0173137&shot=p1&project=