Cataglyphis bicolor (Fabricius)

Agosti, Donat, 1990, Review and reclassification of Cataglyphis (Hymenoptera, Formicidae), Journal of Natural History 24, pp. 1457-1505 : 1486-1487

Cataglyphis bicolor (Fabricius)

Formica bicolor Fabricius, 1793: 356 . Syntypes males, North Africa (Barbary, leg. Desfontaines ( Wheeler, 1922: 944)) [no types known to exist] [see note 1 below], [Later changes: Synonymized with Formica viatica, F. Smith, 1861: 32 ; Cataglyphis viatica, Mayr, 1863:402 ; re-erected as Myrmecocystus bicolor, Emery and Forel, 1879: 449 ; Myrmecocystus bicolor ssp. bicolor, Emery, 1906: 58 ; Myrmecocystus viaticus ssp. bicolor, Forel, 1907: 15 ; Myrmecocystus bicolor, Karavaiev, 1912b: 590 ; Cataglyphis bicolor, Emery, 1915: 22 ; Cataglyphis viatica ssp. bicolor, Wheeler and Mann, 1916: 173 ; Myrmecocystus viaticus r. bicolor, Stitz, 1917: 348 ; Cataglyphis viaticus ssp. bicolor, Wheeler, 1922: 944 ; Myrmecocystus (Cataglyphis) bicolor, Karavaiev, 1924: 306 , Cataglyphis (Cataglyphis) bicolor, Emery, 1925: 264 ; Cataglyphis bicolor, Menozzi, 1927a: 380 ; Cataglyphis (Cataglyphis) bicolor, Santschi, 1929a: 41 .]

Formica megalocola Foerster, 1850: 490 . Syntype worker, Algeria [no types known to exist]. [Later changes: Synonymy by Mayr, 1855: 382; re-erected as Myrmecocystus viaticus var. megalocola, Emery and Forel, 1879: 449 ; Myrmecocystus viaticus r. megalocola, Forel, 1890a: 7 ; Myrmecocystus viaticus var. megalocola, Forel, 1892: 306 ; Myrmecocystus megalocola, Dalla Torre, 1893: 217 ; Myrmecocystus bicolor ssp. megalocola, Emery, 1906: 58 ; Myrmecocystus viaticus ssp. megalocola, Forel, 1907: 15 ; Cataglyphis (Cataglyphis) bicolor ssp. megalocola, Emery, 1925: 265 ; Synonymy confirmed by Santschi, 1929a: 41.] (Descriptions of female and male: Emery, 1891: 16.) [See note 2 below.] Cataglyphis fairmairei Foerster, 1850: 494 . Syntypes males, Algeria [no types known to exist] [see note 3 below]. [Later change: As synonym of Cataglyphis viaticus, Smith, 1861: 32 .] [Synonymy by Santschi, 1929a: 55.]

Myrmecocystus albincans ssp. rotundinodis Karavaiev, 1912a: 16 . Syntype worker, Algeria (Oran). [Later change: Cataglyphis (Cataglyphis) albicans ssp. rotundinodis, Emery, 1925: 262 .] [Synonymy by Santschi, 1929a: 41.]

Note 1. Zimsen (1964) could not find specimens labelled Formica bicolor in the Fabricius collection, and he supposed that the types should be in the collection of René Louriche Desfontaine, in the MNHP in Paris, but no such types could be found there.

Note 2. The types of megalocolus could not be found in the Foerster collection ZMHB (Koch, personal communication). Forel (1890a: 4, 9; also 1890b: 67) describes this race as a rather constant, scarlet form with a distribution on the Tell (eastern part of the Atlas mountains) being smaller than the reddish-black viaticus s. str. with a further southern distribution, to the oasis where he could not record megalocolus. Whereas viaticus builds nests at the edge of the palm forests in rocky soil, megalocolus excavates its nest in the grassland. This observation is confirmed by Wehner etal. (1983: map 2) where they mention a light and a dark form of bicolor in Tunisia. Emery (1891: 16) also described the male of megalocolus smaller than the male of viaticus , but doubted whether this male was correctly identified as megalocolus.

Note 3. The types of fairmairei could not be found in the Foerster Collection ZMHB (Koch, personal communication).