Neivamyrmex halidaii (Shuckard)

Snelling, G. C. & Snelling, R. R., 2007, New synonymy, new species, new keys to Neivamyrmex army ants of the United States., Advances in ant systematics (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): Homage to E. O. Wilson - 50 years of contributions. (Memoirs of the American Entomological Institute 80), pp. 459-550 : 472-473

Neivamyrmex halidaii (Shuckard)

Labidus latreillii : Haliday, 1836: 328 (m). Misidentification

Labidus halidaii Shuckard , 1840: 200. BRAZIL, Sao Paulo ( BMNH) .

Eciton halidayi : Dalla Torre, 1893: 3. Erroneous spelling by Dalla Torre and most subsequent authors.

Labidus gravenhorstii Westwood , 1842: 76 (m). BRAZIL, Goias, Rio Vendhina.

Labidus amplipennis F. Smith , 1859: 6 (m). COLOMBIA, Bogota ( BMNH) .

Eciton (Acamatus) Le Moulti Santschi, 1912: 524 (m). FRENCH GUYANA, St. Laurent de Maroni (Basel)

Eciton (Acamatus) colombi Santschi , 1921: 94 (m). COLOMBIA, Bogota (Basel)

Eciton (Labidus) frontalis Menozzi , 1924: 29 (m). BRAZIL,

Woitkowskia mexicana E. Enzmann , 1952: 445 (m). MEXICO, Chiapas, Tuxtla Gutierrez (type lost?).

NEW SYNONYMY

Neivamyrmex halidaii : Borgmeier, 1953: 12, 15, 18 (m). Bolton, 1995: 289.

Neivamyrmex amplipennis : Borgmeier, 1953: 17.

Neivamyrmex halidaii lemoulti : Borgmeier, 1953: 14.

Neivamyrmex colombi : Borgmeier, 1953: 13.

Neivamyrmex frontalis : Borgmeier, 1953: 11.

Neivamyrmex halidayi : Borgmeier, 1955: 437 - 445 (m). Watkins, 1982: 212. Watkins, 1990: 381.

DISTRIBUTION

MEXICO: Vera Cruz and Oaxaca to Chiapas (Watkins, 1982), south to BOLIVIA and northern ARGENTINA.

DISCUSSION

The genus Woitkowskia was described by Enzmann (1952) for two neotropical species. It was synonymized by Borgmeier (1955) with Neivamyrmex and its type species, W. connectens Enzmann , synonymized with N. walkerii (Westwood, 1842) ; the status of W. mexicana Enzmann , 1952, was left unresolved. As the name implies, W. mexicana was described from a single male from Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, Mexico; the present location of the type is unknown. Despite its verbosity the original description is mostly worthless and the accompanying figures are inept. It is not surprising that subsequent workers have largely avoided dealing with this taxon. Watkins, in his several papers on North American Neivamyrmex ignored this species altogether. Bolton (1995) merely noted that Enzmann's name was an unresolved junior seconday homonym of N. mexicanus (F. Smith, 1859) .

Worthless as Enzmann's description and figure of W. mexicana appear to be, it is possible to match them to males of N. halidaii , a species that is common at the type locality of W. mexicana . Accordingly we have synonymized that name here because there appears to be no reason not to do so. Unless the type is some day located and proven not to be a synonym of N. hallidaii , this seems the best way to deal with Enzmann's name.