Camponotus (Myrmosericus) rufoglaucus (Jerdon)

Type locality India (Formica rufo-glauca, Jerdon, 1851: 124, worker); subspecies controversus (Santschi, 1916b: 509; replacement name for flavopilosus Viehmeyer, 1913: 47) from Tanzania, feae (replacement name for pubescens, Brullé, 1840: 84, worker) from Canary Is. (Emery, 1882: 449, illustrated, soldier & worker), latericius from Namibia (Stitz, 1923: 165, worker), syphax from Zaïre (Wheeler, 1922: 246, soldier & worker, see below), tenuis from India (Forel, 1907a: 32, worker), zanzibaricus from Zanzibar (Forel, 1911e: 287, worker) and zulu from South Africa (Emery, 1895h: 50, soldier & worker); unavailable name chaboti (Santschi, 1925h: 167, soldier, worker & queen) from Angola; soldier and worker described (see Bolton, 1995) .

Jerdon's (1851) brief description (as Formica rufo-glauca) is at - Soldier TL 9 mm, minor TL 7 mm.
In his catalogue of the ants of India, Bingham (1903) described the major worker as - TL 9-10 mm; head and alitrunk blood-red, gaster brown; whole insect covered with a very fine, close siiky pubescence and with sparse erect hairs; head subtriangular, occiput widely emarginate; mandibles comparatively small , with 7 teeth; clypeus carinate, median lobe shortly produced, with a crenate margin; petiole node not as thick as in C. compressus, only slightly convex anteriorly; gaster large and massive.
The minor - TL 5-9 mm; very much more slender; head elongate, sides straight; mandibles with 5 teeth; anterior margin of clypeus arched, not transverse; petiole node conical, thicker proportionately.Bingham referred to the synonymous C. redtenbacheri (Mayr, 1862: 667). That also was described as having a brown gaster

Emery (1882) described feae, from Alegranza I., Canary Islands, one major (illustrated right) and several minors, as follows - (from the Latin)
WORKER - TL 4.5-7 mm. Colour black; mandibles and appendages piceous rust. Subopaque; head subtly reticulate; thorax transversely rugose; gaster with fine tranverse striations, sparsely puncturate. Pubescence white and adpressed rising from puncturations; hairs white but few. Mandibles with six teeth, grossly puncturate. Clypeus carinate, anterior lobe produced, finely reticulate, opaque. Alitrunk dorsum convex; anterior metanotum flat to subconcave, propodeum humped. Petiole scale simple but enlarged, posteriorly depressed (impressed?), upper margin arcuate, somewhat truncate in the major. Gaster segments with a light posterior margin and pale hairs. Tibiae and scapes lacking hairs.

Emery (1895h) has subspecies zulu as larger than type, tibiae flatter almost as eugeniae but scapes less compressed than latter; pubescence golden; TL major 9-9.5 mm; minor TL 7 mm.

The name was given in honour of Leonardo Fea, naturalist and collector aboard the yacht. Other specimens from elsewhere in the Canaries were later reported by Emery (1893c).

Forel's (1911e) description of zanzibaricus is at . Viehmeyer's (1914c) description of flavopilosus is at . Santschi's (1916b) naming of controversus is at . Stitz's (1923) description of latericius is at . Santschi's (1925h) description of chaboti is at .

Wheeler's description of Camponotus (Myrmosericus) rufoglaucus subspecies syphax, new subspecies is -
MINOR WORKER - very similar to the subspecies zulu Emery from Natal and quite as large, the largest specimens measuring fully 9 mm, but not more slender than other forms of the species. The scapes and tibiae are distinctly compressed, the former as in C. eugeniae Forel, but not so broad. Propodeum evenly arcuate in profile, without distinct base and declivity. Pubescence dull yellowish, not very long, slightly golden on the gaster of large individuals, only feebly converging at the mid-dorsal line on the posterior portions of the second and third segments. Color brownish black, the legs a little paler, the funiculi, cheeks, clypeus, mandibles, and tarsi castaneous. Gastric segments with very narrow, dull-yellowish posterior margins.

Collated illustration (right) is of a cotype of Camponotus rufoglaucus syphax from Zaïre. The original photographs, together with enlarged images, are from the MCZ, Harvard University, website at - MCZ link.

Numerous specimens from Zambi (type locality) and Boma (Lang, Chapin, and J. Bequaert). The Zambi specimens are from three colonies, two of which bear the following notes - "Ants forming numerous small craters in the white sand (PI. XXII, fig. 1, right below). Only a few individuals were seen outside the nest before noon. The nest extended to a depth of 50 cm below the surface." "Nest in the rotten base of a Hyphaene. No larvae nor pupae could be seen, though there were certainly as many as 1000 workers in the colony. The nest was loosely arranged in the soft, decomposing mass." Bequaert says of the specimens from Boma that they "run very swiftly and were nesting in the road." Workers of this ant were sent to Prof. Emery, who compared them with his cotypes of the subspecies zulu. He pronounced them to belong to a new subspecies "with the pubescence on the gaster much more parallel and less sinuous."

Photomontage of what appears to be a worker of (perhaps) syphax from Rwanda, collector Gabriel Bizimungu, from a coffee plantation, ? 2005.

Other images can be seen in the folder at -