Cardiocondyla wroughtonii var. obscurior, Wheeler, 1929

Seifert, Bernhard, 2024, A taxonomic revision of the ants of the Cardiocondyla wroughtonii group (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) with a checklist of the Cardiocondyla species of the world, Soil Organisms (London, England) 96 (2), pp. 113-144 : 131

Cardiocondyla wroughtonii var. obscurior

Wheeler 1929 [neotype fixed]

The species has been described from Taiwan (Formosa). The three gynes from the MCZ collection, investigated by Seifert (2003) and labelled by Wheeler ‘Kagi, Formosa 11.1.1927 R.Takahashi Wm.M.Wheeler\ Cotypes\ var. obscurior Wheeler’ cannot be considered as genuine type material. These gynes were the basis of a second description, published 7 March 1930 ( Wheeler 1930). Wheeler’s first description, published 22 October 1929, was based upon one worker and a headless dealate queen collected at Eisei/ Formosa ( Wheeler 1929) . These specimens were not available from MCZ Cambridge and are believed to be lost. Seifert (2003) used Wheeler’s statements on the extent of dark gaster pigmentation to conclude on the identity of obscurior . However the material gathered since then showed that the extent of pigmentation typical for obscurior (PigG1> 75 %) also occurs in 17 % of the wroughtonii workers. It is therefore not advisable to use of pigmentation for species discrimination and/or interpretation of original descriptions. After Seifert (2003) provided measures for separation of the two species, a lot of publications recognizing the heterospecificity were released ( Schrempf & Heinze 2006; Cremer et al. 2012, Bressan et al. 2015, Schrader et al. 2015, Klein et al. 2016 a, Klein et al. 2016 b, Heinze 2017, Oettler et al. 2018, Ün et al. 2021, Schultner et al. 2023). As we have a tradition for the correct use of the name obscurior and in order to safe a stable nomenclature, a neotype fixation is reasonable. Accordingly, a neotype was fixed in the top specimen of a pin with three workers labelled ‘JAP: 26.59°N, 127.98°E Okinawa Isl. Nago leg. Yamauchi 2003.06.03 -K-Nago’. Depository: SMN Görlitz. The neotype sample is allocated to the C. obscurior cluster with p =0.9993 if run as wild-card in a LDA (see above).