Simopone mayri Emery

Bolton, Barry & Fisher, Brian L., 2012, Taxonomy of the cerapachyine ant genera Simopone Forel, Vicinopone gen. n. and Tanipone gen. n. (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) 3283, Zootaxa 3283 (1), pp. 1-101 : 57

Simopone mayri Emery

Simopone ? mayri Emery, 1911: 16 . Syntype males, MADAGASCAR: Baia di Antongil, 1897–98 (A. Mocquerys) (MSNG) [examined]. [Originally incorrectly described as males of Cerapachys mayri Forel, 1892: 244 , by Emery, 1899b: 264; misidentification.]

Simopone satagia Bolton, 1995: 383 . Unnecessary replacement name for mayri Forel , sensu Emery, 1899b: 264 (misidentification). Syn. n.

This species was described from a couple of large Madagascan males that were originally thought by Emery (1899b) to be the males of Cerapachys mayri , a species previously described from workers by Forel (1892). Emery (1911) realised that he had probably placed them in the wrong genus, and transferred them to Simopone but indicated his reservations about this choice with a question mark in his 1911 citation. From the description alone, it is impossible to tell what the correct generic combination should be, as characters critical at genus-rank were all omitted. Examination of the two specimens has revealed that all the genus-rank characters of male Simopone are present in combination and the inclusion of mayri in Simopone is confirmed. However, these males have yet to be matched to any worker-based species as the syntypes of mayri differ from all other male samples, worker-associated or isolated, that are currently available. All that can be said at the moment is that S. mayri is a member of the emeryi group and appears to be related to rex , but differs by the characters given in the provisional key to males (below).