Monomorium ebangaense Santschi - revised status

Type location Angola (Monomorium bicolor Em. stirps ebangaense n. st., Santschi, 1937d: 225, illustrated, worker) from Ebanga - no images on Antweb (February 2015)
Worker only described (see Bolton, 1995) .

Bolton (1987: 367; 1995: 261) had - junior synonym nyasae (Monomorium (subgen. Xeromyrmex) nyasae n. sp., Arnold, 1946: 63, illustrated, worker) from Malawi - no images on Antweb (February 2015). He noted - "In the original description of ebangaense Santschi very erroneously related it to bicolor, and presented some startlingly inaccurate and misleading drawings of the holotype."

Santschi's (1937d) description is at ; and Arnold's (1946) description of nyasae is at . Bolton's modern description (1987) is at .

It seems to me, having read Santschi's quite explicit description, that he actually described and drew a Monomorium bicolor variant. I have separated off Monomorium nyasae on the following grounds -

Santschi	Arnold nyasae	Bolton ("very close to notulum" - no illustration)
TL 2.2 mm	TL 2.5 mm	TL 2.5-2.7 mm
Head rectangular 14% longer than wide; mandibles smooth; eyes convex about 1/3 length of head and set around the mid-point; anterior of clypeus arcuate; scape reaching occiput	Head about 14% longer than wide; posterior angles widely rounded; eyes semi-elliptical; mandibles longitudinally striate; median area of clypeus striate, apical margin straight; scape falling short of occiput by as much a length of first funiculus segment	Head 10% longer than wide; eyes maximum diameter 0.23-0.26 of HW (by definition mandibles striate, eyes set forward of mid-point)
Colour red, anterior alitrunk more yellow, gaster black	Cinnamon yellow, propodeum slightly darker, gaster paler or honey yellow	Colour dull brownish yellow on head and alitrunk, gaster blackish brown
Sculpturation reticulo-punctate; gaster matt with silky reflections	Sculpturation of whole except gaster dull reticulate-punctate; base of gaster dull, rest shiny	Sculpturation similar perhaps sharper
No erect hairs other than on anterior of head; pubescence appressed fine and whitish spaced out on gaster	only erect hairs mentioned are a pair on the petiole node; pubescence very sparse short and yellowish	no specific mention

Santschi, moreover, was familiar with setuliferum and had already described various varieties, e.g. see Monomorium notulum. The description and illustration (above right) given by Arnold (1942), however, is clearly a member of the setuliferum-group. I suspect that the specimen Bolton stated he examined in the Musée d'Histoire Naturelle, Switzerland, was not the specimen described by Santschi.