Crematogaster senegalensis Roger Figure 29 A–C

Taxonomic history.

Crematogaster senegalensis Roger, 1863: 206 (w., q.) Senegal.

Combination in Crematogaster (Acrocoelia): Emery 1922: 144; in Crematogaster ( Crematogaster): Bolton 1995: 166.

Subspecies of C. aegyptiaca: Santschi 1914b: 344; Emery 1915: 10; Wheeler 1922: 828; Emery 1922: 144; Santschi 1929: 148.

Status as species: Forel 1922: 93; Bernard 1950: 288.

Current subspecies: C. senegalensis goliathula Forel.

Material examined.

KSA: Asir province: Raydah: 18.204267N, 42.4124E, 2820 m, 21.ii.2014 (Al Dhafer et al.) (18 w, KSMA); Raydah: 18.221667N, 42.404167E, 2600 m, 13.iv.2011 (Sharaf MR) (21 w, 1 q, KSMA); Al Souda, 18.274167N, 42.364444E, 2982 m, 24.iv.2011 (Sharaf MR) (9 w, KSMA).

Geographic range.

While this species was originally described from Senegal, it seems to have a fairly disjunctive distribution since it is known from eastern and northwestern Africa without being recorded from countries in-between ( Guénard et al. 2017; Janicki et al. 2017). In the Arabian Peninsula, it was recorded from the KSA, Oman, and Yemen (Collingwood 1985; Collingwood and Agosti 1996; Collingwood et al. 2011; Borowiec 2014; Sharaf et al. 2018) (Fig. 25).

Remarks.

The disjunct distribution of this species is a bit unusual and might require further attention in future studies of Afrotropical Crematogaster . It is likely that the odd distribution is just based on a sampling artifact or a preference of arid habitats, which are not as common in Central Africa. However, it could also be the case that this species, as currently defined, consists of several cryptic taxa. Without a thorough revision of the Afrotropical fauna it is impossible to be sure and we therefore list material examined as C. senegalensis .