Polyrhachis (Myrma) militaris (Fabricius)

Wheeler, W. M., 1922, The ants collected by the American Museum Congo Expedition., Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 45, pp. 39-269 : 260

Polyrhachis (Myrma) militaris (Fabricius)

Stanleyville, [[worker]]; Panga, [[worker]]; Lukolela, [[worker]]; Avakubi, [[worker]]; Leopoldville, [[worker]]; Medje, [[worker]]; Lubila, [[worker]]; Ngayu, [[worker]]; Boyulu, [[worker]]; Lie, [[worker]] (Lang and Chapin). Numerous specimens. Those from Ngayu, Boyulu, and Lie, four in number, were taken from the stomachs of toads (Bufo funereus and regularis ). The only specimen from Lubila is "from a nest in a mushroom-shaped termitarium." Many of the specimens from the other localities were captured on fire-wood. Some of the workers have the pubescence on the gaster rather golden and therefore approach the subspecies cupreopubescens Forel.

The large Ethiopian species Myrma , comprising militaris , schistacea , gagates , schlüteri , and nigriseta , are so variable and exhibit so many annectant subspecies and varieties that one is tempted to regard the whole complex as a single, extraordinarily unstable species. Santschi, however, believes that there are several species with a pronounced tendency to hybridize. The materials in collections at the present time are quite insufficient to substantiate either of these views, and the matter must be left to some future myrmecologist, resident in equatorial Africa, who can study these ants intensively both in the field and in the laboratory.