Mayria

AntWiki: The Ants --- Online
Mayria
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Formicinae
Tribe: Camponotini
Genus: Camponotus
Subgenus: Mayria
Forel, 1878
Type species
Camponotus repens

Camponotus repens casent0101175 profile 1.jpg

Camponotus repens casent0101175 dorsal 1.jpg

Specimen labels

Synonyms

Mayr's Carpenter Ants

Emery provided a diagnosis of Mayria, as a subgenus of Camponotus, in 1925. Contemporary studies include a revision by Rakotonirina and Fisher (2018), followed by a 2022 revision by Rasoamanana and Fisher. The following is summarized from the latter study:

Diagnosis

Workers of the subgenus Mayria are easily distinguished from the other subgenera in Madagascar by the following: postocular distance shorter (PoOC/CL< 0.12); clypeus with short median lobe, its anterolateral corner rounded; anterior margin of pronotum strongly convex in lateral view, forming a rounded flange and extended laterally to form an obtuse humeral angle; in dorsal view, pronotal disc rectangular with distinct lateral margin; propodeum dorsum never concave; posterior margin of petiolar node relatively sharp and always surmounted with standing hairs. Body integument opaque, sculptured, and generally matte in color. Standing setae consist of straplike hairs, at least thickened basally.

Minor worker

Head of minor trapezoidal, broadened posteriorly, lateral cephalic margins slightly convex to straight, occipital margin almost straight to evenly convex. Mandible short and triangular, armed with six teeth, basal margin forming a smooth curve, not forming a right angle with the mandible insertion. Palp formula: 6, 4. Maxillary palp long. Clypeus transversely trapezoidal with rounded to evenly triangular or rectangular anterior margin, anterolateral portion always rounded, posterior margin of clypeus straight. Antennae 12-segmented: moderately long, scape gradually broadened apically. Frontal lobe narrowed anteriorly, wider behind the antennal insertion; frontal carina V-shaped. Compound eye moderately sized, protruding, breaking the outline of the lateral cephalic margin in alamaina species group, located posterior to the midlength of the head.

Mesosoma in lateral view, dorsal outline of mesosoma continuous (darwinii group) to complex (other groups). Promesonotal suture visible. Pronotum: humeral angle tuberculate (C. ellioti species group), marginate in the remaining species group; in dorsal view, pronotal disc usually rectangular. Mesonotum in dorsal view, wider than long; laterally marginate in C. edmondi species group. Mesopleuron and propodeal surface together distinctly longer than lateral portion of pronotum in lateral view. Propodeal lobe reduced. Metapleural gland absent. Procoxa of normal to moderate size for C. edmondi species group. Middle and hind tibiae with single pectinate spur.

Petiolar node: broad and massive, ranging from squamiform to nodiform, posterodorsal edge of petiole always marginate and ornamented with thick, erect hairs.

Integument opaque and sculptured, ranging from finely and densely reticulate-punctate to finely and densely imbricate.

Pilosity: standing setae thick at least at the base, whitish to pale colored, erect to appressed hairs, filiform to spatulate hairs, moderately distributed on entire dorsum of head and body; ground pilosity always present and conspicuous.

Major worker

Most of the morphological traits cited above for minor workers are also characteristics of major workers. However, major workers exhibit the following characters: head more subquadrate to rectangular; malar area thimble-like with weak impression at the base of each seta; lateral portion of head sculptured as finely and densely reticulate-punctate, imbricate, or areolate, and superimposed with two to seven smaller areoles embedded in scattered large punctures, from which an appressed hair arises medially; antennal scape shorter, its apex barely surpassing or not extending beyond posterior cephalic margin; dorsal outline of mesosoma with the same structure as minor worker.

Notes

The type species Camponotus echinoploides of the subgenus Myrmepinotus shares the characters of the Mayria diagnosis and therefore Myrmepinotus is synonymized with Mayria. The following characters place C. echinoploides within the Mayria subgenus: in dorsal view, mesosoma relatively short and distinctly marginate anteriorly and laterally; pronotum and mesonotum widened; promesonotal and metanotal sutures well marked; in profile, petiolar node thick with convex anterior and posterior margins, and body covered with whitish, thick hairs. In fact, the lectotype of Camponotus repens and the holotype of C. echinoploides share a suite of morphological characters: in full-face view, head elongate, broadened posteriorly with slightly convex sides; clypeus with short median lobe; in profile, anterior margin of pronotum strongly convex; pronotal disc subrectangular, marginate laterally; petiolar node as high as long; standing setae consist of thick, whitish hairs; body integument dull. These morphological characters are observed also in specimens belonging to the edmondi species group but absent for species that are removed from the subgenus Mayria (see Table 2 in the publication for a list species with subgeneric assignment changes). Accordingly, we have treated Myrmepinotus as a synonym of Mayria.


Antwiki 2024, Lubertazzi: The Rasoamanana and Fisher 2022 revision defined Mayria to only include species that occur in Madagascar. This excluded a small set of Afrotropical species previously assigned to the subgenus, e.g., Camponotus dewitzii. These other Camponotus species were not studied as part of this 2022 revision thus the species and their subgeneric status are not mentioned. This is consistent with the ongoing revisions of Malagasy Camponotus species by Fisher and co-authors to "continue the practice of placing (revised) taxa in their respective subgenera" to best maintain consistency with older groupings while also using better constructed species-groups as their more definitive, albeit informal, means of organizing the large number of this regions' Camponotus species.

Diagnosis. Emery (1925). - "Worker and queen. - Medium species; dimorphism pronounced. Head of minors, medias, and queens almost as in Myrmentoma, but usually head of majors narrower anteriorly and more deeply emarginate posteriorly. Clypeus neither carinate medially nor subcarinate; without anterior lobe or with short, rounded or truncated lobe. Mandibles strongly arched, with 5 or 6 teeth. Mesosoma large anteriorly, narrow posteriorly; mesosomal dorsum not marginate, and with continuous profile, pronotum very arched and mesosoma almost straight posteriorly, or with propodeum concave dorsally, forming saddle-like profile, or with noticeable impression on meta-propodeal suture. Petiole thickly squamiform or nodiform. Abdominal segment III (gastral segment I) depressed in the typical species (C. madagascarensis, Forel), more-or-less normal in most other species. Male.- Ocelles present on summit of vertex (C. quadrimaculatus, Forel, gibber, Forel) (Plate 3, Figure 4). Remaining characters similar to Myrmentoma.

Geographical distribution of species. - Madagascar; some species inhabiting tropical Africa.

Note: This subgenus is very similar to Myrmentoma. Mayria is in some way intermediate between Myrmentoma and Tanaemyrmex of arrogans and natalensis species groups."

(Translated and edited by B. E. Boudinot, 17 February 2017.)

Key to Camponotus subgenus Mayria minor workers

Camponotus subgenus Mayria species:

These species are organized into nine species-groups

Nomenclature

The following information is derived from Barry Bolton's Online Catalogue of the Ants of the World.

  • MAYRIA [subgenus of Camponotus]
    • Mayria Forel, 1878: 369. Type-species: Mayria madagascarensis (junior secondary homonym in Camponotus, replaced by Camponotus repens), by monotypy.
    • Mayria subgenus of Camponotus: Forel, 1894e: 227.
  • MYRMEPINOTUS [junior synonym of Mayria]
    • Myrmepinotus Santschi, 1921f: 312 [as subgenus of Camponotus]. Type-species: Camponotus echinoploides Forel, 1891b: 51, by original designation.
    • Myrmepinotus as subgenus of Camponotus: Emery, 1925b: 126; subsequent authors; Bolton, 1995b: 37; Bolton, 2003: 118.
    • Myrmepinotus as junior synonym of Mayria: Rasoamanana & Fisher, 2022. 146.

References

Retrieved from "https://antwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Mayria&oldid=718440"