Crematogaster laestrygon Emery

Sharaf, Mostafa R., Aldawood, Abdulrahman S. & Garcia, Francisco Hita, 2019, Review of the Arabian Crematogaster Lund (Hymenoptera, Formicidae), synoptic list, distribution, and description of two new species from Oman and Saudi Arabia, ZooKeys 898, pp. 27-81 : 27

Crematogaster laestrygon Emery Figure 24 A–C

Taxonomic history.

Crematogaster laestrygon Emery, 1869b: 135 (w.) Italy: De Stefani 1889: 145 (q.); Baroni Urbani 1964: 43 (q.).

Combination in Crematogaster (Acrocoelia) : Emery 1922: 142; in Crematogaster ( Crematogaster) : Bolton 1995: 166.

Subspecies of C. scutellaris : Emery and Forel 1879: 464; André 1883: 393; of C. schmidti : Emery 1891: 15; of C. auberti : Forel 1902: 154; Ruzsky 1902: 31; Stitz 1917: 341; Santschi 1921: 70; Emery 1922: 142; Santschi 1934: 167.

Status as species: Forel 1909: 104; Santschi 1915: 59; Emery 1926: 2; Wheeler 1927: 106; Santschi 1936: 201.

Current subspecies: C. laestrygon airensis Santschi, C. laestrygon atlantis Santschi, C. laestrygon canariensis Barquín, C. laestrygon diminuta Santschi, C. laestrygon granulata Santschi, C. laestrygon maura Forel, C. laestrygon submaura Lomnicki, C. laestrygon theryi Santschi, C. laestrygon vivax Santschi.

Crematogaster laestrygon subsp. vaucheri Emery, 1926: 2 (w.) Morocco.

[First available use of Crematogaster auberti st. laestrygon var. vaucheri Santschi, 1921: 71; unavailable name.] Junior synonym of C. laestrygon : Collingwood 1978: 69.

Material examined.

Yemen: Hada, Sana’a, 15.3N, 44.166667E, 15.vii.1988 (P. Haney) (1 w, CASC).

Geographic range.

This species is originally described from Italy and widespread in southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East ( Borowiec 2014; Guénard et al. 2017; Janicki et al. 2017). The Arabian records are from the KSA and Yemen ( Borowiec 2014; Collingwood 1985, Collingwood and Agosti 1996) ( Fig. 25 ).

Remarks.

This is a good example of a Crematogaster species with a complex and uncertain taxonomic situation. It is relatively widespread in the Mediterranean and Middle East and currently has nine subspecies. It is doubtful that they are conspecific and it is possible that this is a species complex. As outlined below, we consider C. laestrygon striaticeps as sufficiently different to raise it to the rank of species.

Figures

Figure 24. C. laestrygon A body in profile B body in dorsal view C head in full-face view, CASENT 0912691 (Zach Lieberman), www. AntWeb. org.

Figure 25. Distribution map of C. laestrygon, C. mimosae, C. oasium, and C. senegalensis.