Hypoponera spei (Forel)

Type location South Africa (Ponera spei, Forel, 1910e: 423, worker; Arnold, 1915: 77) - see below
subspecies
fidelis (Ponera spei For. var. fidelis n. var., Santschi, 1926b: 207, illustrated, worker & queen) from South Africa - see queen at http://www.antweb.org/specimenImages.do?code=casent0915208
unavailable name sancta (Ponera spei For. r. devota Santschi v. sancta n.v., Forel, 1914d: 213, worker) - see http://www.antweb.org/specimenImages.do?code=casent0907324
worker and queen described (new combination in Hypoponera, in Bolton, 1995) .

Bolton & Fisher (2011: 103) have transferred devota (Ponera spei For. stirps devota n. st., Santschi, 1914e: 5, worker) from South Africa to under Hypoponera sulcatinasis.

Forel's (1910e) description is at . Arnold's (1915) translation is at . Santschi's (1914e) description of devota is at . Forel's (1914d) description of sancta is at . Arnold's (1926) translation of devota with sancta is at . Santschi's (1926b) illustrated description of fidelis is at .

WORKER - TL 3.7 mm; metanotal suture faint (not shown on drawing); head, alitrunk and petiole dark yellowish-red, gaster rusty-red apex paler.

Bolton & Fisher's re-description can be found in http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/list/2011/2843.html

The photomontage of the type worker is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0907323.

Oxford University Museum specimens

Hypoponera spei B Taylor det.	South Africa Peter Hlavác	1.ii.2004 Goukamma 34°03.5' S 22°23.14' E	Western Cape, Knysna env., Goukamma, 350 m worker & dealate queen	2
Hypoponera spei B Taylor det.	South Africa Peter Hlavác	28.i.2004 Goukamma 34°02.7' S 22°50.2' E	Western Cape, Knysna env., Goukamma, sea level; from coastal forest 2 workers & 1 queen	3

The photomontage is of a worker collected from South Africa, Western Cape, Knysna Env.; collector Peter Hlavác.

Note - The Bolton & Fisher revision has confirmed my thought that this worker was too large to be traegaordhi, as Santschi described but otherwise seemed a good match, including the lack of eyes simply a faint mark.

The photomontage is of a worker collected from South Africa, Western Cape, Knysna Env., Goukamma; collector Peter Hlavác.

This worker has a much more obvious small eye than that above.  Such a variation is referred to by Bolton & Fisher (2011). This, however, has obvious sculpturation on the pronotum and petiole that is at odds with their report.

I had diagnosed this previously as Ponera coarctata. Bolton & Fisher (2011), however, hold the opinion that sub-Saharan African reports of P. coarctata all were erroneous and due to similiarities, such as the transparent spot in the subpetiolar process, with the primarily Holarctic species

The photomontage is of a dealate queen collected from South Africa, Western Cape, Knysna Env.;collector Peter Hlavác.

The photomontage of a worker from South Africa is from Bolton & Fisher (2011) and is also at http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0217348.

Note the scale on the full face view was wrong and I have corrected it here (from the website image).

The photomontage of a queen from South Africa is from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0217350.