Crematogaster (Crematogaster) castanea F. Smith

(museisapentiae) Previously in subgenus Sphaerocrema.

Type location South Africa (Crematogaster castaneus, Smith, 1858b: 136, illustrated, worker & queen; type location wrongly given as "Albania"); all forms known (see Bolton, 1995) - for subspecies, varieties and synonyms see below .

Type form
Smith's (1858b) description is at . Arnold (1920a: 488) has a transcription, this is at - note Arnold obviously took Smith's type location of "Albania" as correct - Smith's simultaneous description of Cr. arborea (see below) matches the photographed specimen and was given as from Port Natal, South Africa, collected by Herr Gueinzius.

The photomontage of a syntype is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0102953

As can be found under Crematogaster (Cr.) tricolor, I have separated off tricolor, or rather reverted the situation, as it was when first described.The listing below, therefore is limited to the unicolorous forms reported mainly from southern Africa.

Subspecies
adusta (Stitz, 1923: 155, worker; Santschi, 1935a: 257)	Stitz's description is on . Santschi (1935a, as adusta v emacerata) noted adusta and its variety have short propodeal spines, setting them apart from the other races of castanea	Namibia
arborea (Smith, 1858b: 138, plate of nest, worker; Mayr, 1866b: 900, description, illustrated petiole of worker; junior synonym decolorata, Santschi, 1926b: 213, worker) - this status is confused as Emery 1922e: 147), accepted by Wheeler (1922: 840), had the Mayr specimen as being the same as, or a subspecies of, Cr. melanogaster Emery	Smith's (1858b) description of arborea is at Mayr's (1866b) illustrated (petiole) description is at . Mayr's further description (1896) is at . It was transcribed and Mayr's (1896) description translated by Arnold (1920a: 506-7) these are at It seems, however, that Arnold had not seen Mayr (1866b); see below for Santschi (1926b)	South Africa
bruta (Santschi, 1913a: 413, worker; Santschi, 1926b: 213)	named in key only in Santschi (1913a); see below for Santschi (1926b)	South Africa
durbanensis (Forel, 1914d: 234, worker; Arnold, 1920a: 491, queen)	Forel's (1914d) description is at ; see below for Arnold (1920a) translation	South Africa
insidiosa (Santschi, 1920d: 378, worker)	Santschi's (1920d) of insidiosa is at .	Namibia
mediorufa (Forel, 1907g: 81, footnote, worker & male; Forel, 1913a: 124, queen; Arnold, 1920a: 493, all forms)	Forel's (1907g) description is on .	South Africa
rufonigra (Emery, 1895h: 27, worker; Arnold, 1920a: 492, queen & male)	Emery's description (1895h) of rufonigra is at .	South Africa
simia (Forel, 1910f: 6, all forms)	Forel's (1910f) description is on . , see below for Arnold (1920a) translation	Botswana
ulugurensis (Forel, 1911d: 369, worker; Santschi, 1914b: 86, queen & male)	Forel (1911d) noted ulugurensis as similar to but darker than harrarica; TL 3.5-5.2 mm; reddish brown, with the gaster more yellow red, legs and antennae brown; head subopaqe and very densely longitudinally striate; pronotum finely reticulo-punctate and coarsely reticulate or rugose with several irregular fossae	Tanzania, Uluguru Mountains and Morogoro, collected by Zimmer
yambatensis (Forel, 1913h: 353, worker)	Forel (1913h) noted yambatensis as like ulugurensis but with the body and appendages wholly black but the gaster yellow; also with the alitrunk finely and very densely sculptured, holotype worker only	Zaïre (from Yambata, by R. Mayné)
junior synonym
decolor (Forel, 1891b; 188, worker)	with a smaller worker, a narrower pedicel, and darker colour	Madagascar
unavailable names
mossamedana (Santschi, 1930b: 69, worker & queen)	Santschi's description is at .	Angola
quisquilia (Santschi, 1916b: 502, worker)	Santschi (1916b) briefly noted - worker of a brighter red than rufonigra Em., the base of the gaster is rust and the appendages more obscure; the sculpture is much more defined with the longitudinal rugae more or less distinct whereas they are missing in rufonigra	Zimbabwe

Other descriptions translated by Arnold (1920a: 506-7) are of simia (Forel: 1910f) and (illustrated) durbanensis (Forel, 1914d) at and quisquilia (Santschi, 1916b), bruta (Santschi, 1913a) and ferruginea (Forel, 1892e) . Santschi (1926b) deals with several varieties, these are at .

Forel (1911f) reported inversa and castanea, both as varieties of inversa, from Zaïre, Kasai, Kondué by Luja. .

A drawing of the C. castanea arborea nest was given by F Smith (1858b) on . A description and drawing of C. castanea hararica and a nest was given by Mayr (1907b)on .

Collected by Room (1971) from all parts of the Mampong Cemetery cocoa farm in Ghana, his report includes reference to it ("very close to Cr. striatula") as nesting in cocoa canopy. It also occurred in 34 of his 168 canopy samples at other farms; 30 of those samples were from trees selected for the presence of Oecophylla longinoda as a dominant, and Room described its very close association with O. longinoda. Room also reported its occurrence on cocoa mistletoe - being fifth most abundant insect, with 3,228 workers, from less than 30 of 630 samples of the mistletoe/cocoa junction (unranked) (Room, 1972a, b, 1975). Leston (1973) also regarded it as sometimes a dominant but mutually tolerant of O. longinoda. Found on cocoa at Kade by Majer, who found it in 61.1% of his 144 pkd samples at Kade, with 200-400 workers per sample (1975, 1976a, b, c). It is probably among the list of Strickland (1951a). Bigger (1981a) recorded its distribution and abundance on a single area of Amelonado cocoa at CRIG, where small numbers were collected by pkd from areas dominated by Oecophylla longinoda.
I suspect that the species from Ghana was not true castanea but resolution will have to await examination of actual specimens.