Camponotus gouldi

The dry forest of the west, the spiny forest and thicket of the southwest, the transitional humid forest in the PN Andohahela, the savannah shrubland and woodland, and the Uapaca woodland and montane rainforest of the south-central high plateau of Madagascar are all habitats where C. gouldi occurs (Fig. 55D). This species nests mostly in rotten logs, in the ground, and under stones, rarely in rotting tree stumps and rotten sticks. Workers forage most often on the ground and seldom on lower vegetation.

Identification
With head in full-face view, lateral margins of head anterior to eye level parallel and lacking erect hairs, posterior portion of head extending into a neck and anteromedian clypeal margin continuously forming broad convexity; dorsal outline of mesosoma broadly convex; body color black to dark brown.

Camponotus gouldi is mostly similar to Camponotus aro, but the posterior portion of the head for the latter is normally rounded, not extending into a short neck, and the propodeal dorsum immediately posterior to the metanotal groove is convex, then becomes concave medially and rounds to the declivity surface.

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Malagasy Region: Madagascar.

Nomenclature

 * . Camponotus egregius r. gouldi Forel, 1886c: civ (s.) MADAGASCAR.
 * [Also described as new by Forel, 1886f: 167.]
 * [Camponotus gouldi Forel, 1879a: 115. Nomen nudum.]
 * Forel, 1897c: 210 (w.q.); Forel, 1907g: 90 (m.).
 * Combination in C. (Myrmogigas): Forel, 1912i: 91;
 * combination in C. (Dinomyrmex): Forel, 1914a: 268;
 * combination in C. (Tanaemyrmex): Emery, 1925b: 85.
 * Subspecies of egregius: Forel, 1891b: 22.
 * Subspecies of angusticollis: Emery, in Dalla Torre, 1893: 221 (footnote), 233.
 * Status as species: Dalla Torre, 1893: 233; Emery, 1896d: 370 (in list); Forel, 1897c: 201; Forel, 1904b: 377; Forel, 1907g: 90; Wheeler, W.M. 1922a: 1043; Emery, 1925b: 85; Bolton, 1995b: 102.

Type Material

 * Holotype (by monotypy) major worker, Madagascar (Grandidier) [not examined, type not found, Rakotonirina & Fisher, 2022].
 * Neotype major worker, designated by Rakotonirina & Fisher, 2022: 87. MADAGASCAR: Province Mahajanga: PN Ankarafantsika, Forêt de Tsimaloto, 18.3 km 46° NE de Tsaramandroso, -16.22806, 47.14361, 135 m, tropical dry forest, ground nest, 2–8 Apr 2001 (Fisher, Griswold & Malagasy Arthropod Team) collection code: BLF03536, specimen code: CASENT0437531 (CAS).

Neotype designation was made by Rakotonirina & Fisher (2022) for C. gouldi because its type is presumed lost. No type specimen could be found at the renowned museums in Europe that might have held the specimen. One of the author BLF visited the Forel collection at MHNG, MNHN, NHMB, and MSNG and could not ﬁnd the type for C. gouldi. Also, the type specimen appears to be absent from the little-known collection of Forel types at Naturmuseum Solothurn (Germann 2017). Morphological characters that deﬁne the designated neotype are in accordance with the original description of the former holotype specimen. Since the original type locality was not precisely located within Madagascar, the new locality type has been chosen on the basis of where the species was most often collected across its geographical distribution.

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

 * Blaimer B. B., S. G. Brady, T. R. Schultz, and B. L. Fisher. 2015. Fucntional and phylogenetic approaches reveal the evolution of diversity in a hyper diverse biota. Ecography 38: 001-012.
 * Fisher B. L. 1997. Biogeography and ecology of the ant fauna of Madagascar (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Journal of Natural History 31: 269-302.
 * Fisher B. L. 2003. Formicidae, ants. Pp. 811-819 in: Goodman, S. M.; Benstead, J. P. (eds.) 2003. The natural history of Madagascar. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, xxi + 1709 pp.
 * Forel A. 1886. Diagnoses provisoires de quelques espèces nouvelles de fourmis de Madagascar, récoltées par M. Grandidier. Annales de la Société Entomologique de Belgique. 30: ci-cvii.
 * Forel A. 1897. Ameisen aus Nossi-Bé, Majunga, Juan de Nova (Madagaskar), den Aldabra-Inseln und Sansibar, gesammelt von Herrn Dr. A. Voeltzkow aus Berlin. Mit einem Anhang über die von Herrn Privatdocenten Dr. A. Brauer in Marburg auf den Seychellen und von Herrn Perrot auf Ste. Marie (Madagaskar) gesammelten Ameisen. Abhandlungen der Senckenbergischen Naturforschenden Gesellschaft 21: 185-208.
 * Wheeler W. M. 1922. Ants of the American Museum Congo expedition. A contribution to the myrmecology of Africa. IX. A synonymic list of the ants of the Malagasy region. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 45: 1005-1055