Carebara elmenteitae (Patrizi, 1948)

Fischer, Georg, Azorsa, Frank, Garcia, Francisco Hita, Mikheyev, Alexander S. & Economo, Evan P., 2015, Two new phragmotic ant species from Africa: morphology and next-generation sequencing solve a caste association problem in the genus Carebara Westwood, ZooKeys 525, pp. 77-105 : 91

Taxon classification Animalia Hymenoptera Formicidae

Carebara elmenteitae (Patrizi, 1948) Fig. 3

Solenopsis (Crateropsis) elmenteitae Patrizi, 1948: 176, figs I, II (s.) KENYA. Holotype (IEGG) (Lake) Elmenteita, 20.xii.1945 (Patrizi) [not examined]. Combination in Oligomyrmex : Ettershank 1966: 123; in Carebara : Fernández 2004: 235.

Diagnosis.

Phragmotic worker (minor and major worker unknown): Head with strongly defined oval cephalic shield, anterolaterally with lobes covering antennae when in repose, mandibles small, clypeus with straight anterior margin and median carina, and anterolateral clypeal lobes either absent or hidden under cephalic shield lobes. Dorsal face of cephalic shield concave, with irregular rugulae or shallow ridges.

Distribution.

This species has not been recorded from any locality other than from the type collection near Lake Elmenteita in central Kenya’s Rift Valley.

Discussion.

We were not able to examine the holotype specimen from the Patrizi collection in Bologna. Thus, we refrain from a detailed re-description of this species within the present publication and defer to larger-scale future Carebara revisions. Therefore, we would like to encourage myrmecologists to collect at or near the type locality in Kenya, which will hopefully lead to findings of additional phragmotic specimens and of the undescribed major and minor worker subcastes. It is also unclear if winged queens exist within this specific clade or if maybe the phragmotic workers are actually ergatoid queens. From the drawings phragmotic workers of Carebara elmenteitae can be easily differentiated from those of the new species because of the sculpture inside the cephalic shield: Carebara elmenteitae with irregular rugulae or shallow ridges, Carebara lilith punctate and with cone-shaped, gland-like structures present, and Carebara phragmotica with two subparallel, conspicuously elevated ridges in center of cephalic shield (see also Carebara lilith and Carebara phragmotica diagnoses and discussions).