Oecophylla longinoda (Latreille)

Wheeler, W. M., 1922, The ants collected by the American Museum Congo Expedition., Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 45, pp. 39-269 : 226-227

Oecophylla longinoda (Latreille)

Plate XX, Figures 1 and 2; Text Figures 58 and 59

Faradje, [[worker]], [[queen]], [[male]]; Malela, [[worker]]; San Antonio, [[worker]] (Lang and Chapin); Katala, [[worker]]; Leopoldville, [[worker]] (J.Bequaert).

The following differences between this species and smaragdina may be noted. In the worker the polymorphism is greater, for not only do the individuals of the same colony show a greater range in size (from 3 to 9 mm.) but the minimae differ more from the mediae and maximae in the shape of the thorax and petiole. The head of the worker longinoda is distinctly more triangular than that of smaragdina , being broader behind, with less convex sides; the eyes are distinctly larger, the mandibles shorter, the clypeus more nearly subcarinate behind, its anterior border sometimes feebly and sinuately emarginate in the middle, the pronotum less convex, the petiole decidedly stouter, more thickened behind, with the stigmata much less prominent when the segment is viewed from above and its ventral surface much more convex anteriorly on the ventral side, when viewed in profile. The sculpture, pilosity, and color are very similar in the two species, but in longinoda the integument is more decidedly opaque, the mandibles are somewhat more coarsely striated, always darker, being concolorous with the posterior portion of the head, at least in the large workers and especially in the dark varieties. The transverse furrow on the second and succeeding gastric segments just behind the anterior border is more pronounced in longinoda .

The female of this species measures 12 to 14 mm. (wings 16 mm.) and is, therefore, distinctly smaller than the corresponding sex of smaragdina , which measures 15 to 17 mm. (wings 18 to 19 mm.). The body of the African species is much more opaque throughout, the wing-veins more the typical form of the species. I am unable to say, therefore, whether Oe. smaragdina , actually occurs on the African continent.

According to Emery, longinoda is the most primitive of the existing forms of Oecophylla , because most closely allied to Oe. sicula , which he described from the Miocene amber of Sicily. In the Baltic amber I have recognized two species of the genus, Oe. brischkei Mayr and brevinodis Wheeler . As the latter name is preoccupied by brevinodis Andre , which was based, as I have shown, on the minima worker of longinoda , I suggest that the fossil species be called crassinoda (new name). In the shape of the petiole both of the Baltic amber forms, being of Lower Oligocene age and therefore older than sicula , are also more like longinoda , and especially its smaller workers, than the Oriental smaragdina .