Tetraponera maculifrons (Santschi)
Type location Djibouti
(Sima foveolata Mayr stirps maculifrons n.sp., Santschi,
1912b: 162, worker; in Tetraponera, Wheeler, 1922: 797)
collected at Obock
variety syriaca (Sima bifoveolata
var. syriaca,Wheeler & Mann, 1916, 167, worker) from Egypt,
collected in Sinai, by W M Mann
worker only described (see Bolton,
1995) .
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Santschi's (1912b)
description is at . Wheeler & Mann's
(1916) description of syriaca is at .
Mayr (1895) also noted its collection at Zanzibar, Tanzania.
Menozzi (1926a) reported the queen from Somalia, at El Bar El
Ellan.
The Wheeler & Mann specimens in the MCZ photograph, assuming the
scale is correct, has a TL of over 6 mm; whereas Mayr (1895) gave the
type bifoveolata TL as 3.8-4.2 mm; Mayr also noted abundant
pubescence on the type bifoveolata and none is obvious on the
MCZ syriaca specimen. .
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The
photomontage of a worker from Algeria (Hoggar/Haggar/Ahaggar
Mountians), identified by Santschi, is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0915530.
It and others are listed by Santschi (Santschi, 1934f). He commented on
it solely as a variation from the type Sima bifoveolata. Comparing
this Santschi worker and the remains of the bifoveolata
type there is no
obvious difference in morphology. From the evidence of the Tanzania
specimens I have, both are the minor morph of the workers. What is
constant, however, between the two species as I feel they should be is
that the bifoveolata specimens all have quite a dense covering of pubescence and more obviously abundant erect ahirs.
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