Crematogaster rochai Forel

Wild, A. L., 2007, A catalogue of the ants of Paraguay (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)., Zootaxa 1622, pp. 1-55 : 52

Crematogaster rochai Forel 1903.

Crematogaster rochai Forel 1903: 255. [w syntypes examined, MHNG; Ceará, Brazil, (Rocha)]

Crematogaster brevispinosa r. rochai Forel . Forel 1912c: 213.

Crematogaster (Orthocrema) brevispinosa st. malevolens Santschi 1919: 41. NEW SYNONYMY. [w syntypes examined, NHMB; Nueva Pompeya , Chaco, Argentina (Joergensen)] .

Crematogaster (Orthocrema) brevispinosa subsp. rochai Forel . Emery 1924a: 134.

Crematogaster (Orthocrema) brevispinosa rochai Forel . Kempf 1972: 86.

Crematogaster (Crematogaster) rochai Forel . Longino 2003: 102.

Crematogaster (Crematogaster) malevolens Santschi . Longino 2003: 131. Raised to species.

Crematogaster rochai can be diagnosed by the following combination of characters: antennal scapes short, less than.8x head length, in repose failing to reach posterior margin of head in full-face view; dorsal surface of head largely devoid of erect setae; promesonotum slightly arched in profile; propodeal suture present but not deep; postero-dorsal face of propodeum forming a single concave slope, not broken into distinct dorsal and posterior faces; propodeal spines short and upturned; first gastric tergite (= abd. tergite 4) with <6 standing setae exclusive of posterior row.

Mature colonies in the Crematogaster crinosa complex, including C. rochai , are polymorphic in the worker caste and occasionally produce rather large workers. Santschi’s C. malevolens seems to be little other than a large C. rochai . I can find no consistent characters to separate C. malevolens from the C. rochai type or from Paraguayan material that Jack Longino has identified as C. rochai . Longino (2003) elevated C. malevolens to species with the intent to clear trinomials from the C. crinosa complex but did not provide additional reasoning. If C. malevolans is indeed conspecific with what I call C. rochai in Paraguay, an alternate resolution would be to split these southern populations off from C. rochai under the name C. malevolens . Specimens from southern South America are more pilose and bear a stronger propodeal suture than more northerly material Longino (2003), character states that apply equally to C. malevolens . Considering the allopatric nature of the variation, however, I prefer to retain a single species.