Zasphinctus obamai Hita Garcia

Garcia, Francisco Hita, Fischer, Georg, Liu, Cong, Audisio, Tracy L. & Economo, Evan P., 2017, Next-generation morphological character discovery and evaluation: an X-ray micro-CT enhanced revision of the ant genus Zasphinctus Wheeler (Hymenoptera, Formicidae, Dorylinae) in the Afrotropics, ZooKeys 693, pp. 33-93 : 41-43

Zasphinctus obamai Hita Garcia sp. n. Figs 3, 4A, D, G, J, M, P, 5A, D, G, J, M, P, 6A, D, G, J, M, P, 7, 8, 13A, 16, Video 1

Type material.

Holotype, pinned worker, KENYA, Western Province, Kakamega Forest, Buyangu, 0.35222, 34.8647, 1640 m, secondary rainforest, leaf litter, collection code FHG00001, VII.-VIII.2004 (F. Hita Garcia) (NMKE: CASENT0764125). Paratypes, seven pinned workers: two with same data as holotype (BMNH: CASENT0764126; MCZC: CASENT0764127); one from KENYA, Western Province, Kakamega Forest, Isecheno, equatorial rainforest, sifted litter and soil under Morus mesozygia , 0.34, 34.85, 1550 m, 6.XI.2002 (W. Okeka) (LACM: CASENT0178218; ZFMK: CASENT0764648); two from KENYA, Western Province, Kakamega Forest, Kisere Forest Fragment, 0.38505, 34.89378, 1650 m, rainforest, ex leaf litter, Transect 11, collection code FHG00036, 16.VII.2007 (F. Hita Garcia) (NMKE: CASENT0764128; NMKE: CASENT0764129); and one from KENYA, Western Province, Kakamega Forest, Bunyala Forest Fragment, 0.37889, 34.69917, 1448 m, Winkler leaf litter extraction, collection code ANTC39476, VIII.2008 (G. Fischer) (ZFMK: CASENT0764647).

Cybertypes, the cybertype dataset consists of all volumetric raw data in DICOM format, 3D PDFs and 3D rotation videos of scans of head, mesosoma, metasoma, and the full body of the physical holotype (NMKE: CASENT0764125) and/or one paratype (MCZC: CASENT0764127) in addition to montage photos illustrating head in full-face view, profile and dorsal views of the body of both specimens. The data is deposited at Dryad and can be freely accessed as virtual representation of both types ( Hita Garcia et al. 2017c, http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.4s3v1). In addition to the cybertype data at Dryad, we also provide a freely accessible 3D surface model of the holotype at Sketchfab (https://sketchfab.com/models/dfe15a58514c4be89cdeff7f9713091c).

Differential worker diagnosis.

See Table 3.

Worker measurements and indices.

See Table 4.

Etymology.

This species is named in honour of Barack Hussein Obama , the 44th President of the United States of America. We want to acknowledge his important efforts undertaken for the conservation of fragile natural habitats around the globe. Also, the type locality of Z. obamai is geographically close to the hometown of Obama 's paternal family in Western Kenya.

Distribution and biology.

Zasphinctus obamai is only known from the type locality, the Kakamega Forest in Western Kenya, which is a tropical equatorial rainforest. Despite a thorough ant inventory ( Hita Garcia et al. 2009), Z. obamai was only sampled four times making it one of the rarest ant species of the Kakamega Forest. It was only found in the leaf litter layer of primary or near-primary forest habitats. Considering the rarity of this species in the type locality it is possible that it might also be encountered in other rainforest localities westwards of Kakamega, but eluded collections in the past. However, presently, Z. obamai appears to be endemic to this one forest.

Diagnostic comments.

Zasphinctus obamai appears to be morphologically closer to Z. wilsoni than to Z. sarowiwai . Among other important differences, Z. obamai and Z. wilsoni are significantly smaller, lack a median clypeal tooth, and have a clearly defined vertexal margin compared to Z. sarowiwai . Zasphinctus obamai and Z. wilsoni can be easily separated by the characters provided above in Table 3. On the basis of the type series, there is no observable intraspecific variation.