Anochetus haytianus

Brown, WL Jr.,, 1978, Contributions toward a reclassification of the Formicidae. Part VI. Ponerinae, tribe Ponerini, subtribe Odontomachiti. Section B. Genus Anochetus and bibliography., Studia Entomologica 20, pp. 549-638 : 611

[37] A. haytianus

, A. tongispina and the new species A. kempfi , described below, comprise a probable superspecies. These are distinguished from the emarginatus superspecies and other species of the same group by their relatively shorter mandibles (MI <C 67) with fewer teeth and denticles along their inner preapical margins (less than 10, and usually 7 or 8 per mandible). Like A. testaceus , they are more or less yellow in color. The only known queens are highly ergatoid forms, distinguished from workers by their slightly more voluminous gasters. Males are still unknown. Probably all three species are nocturnal foragers.

A. haytianus is known from Manneville in eastern Haiti, and A. tongispina from the northeastern foothills of the Massif de La Hotte on the southwestern peninsula of Haiti at an elevation of about 1000 m or more. A. haytianus (4 syntype workers) measures HL 1.59-1.64, HW 1.26-1.33, ML 0.93-0.95 mm; Cl 79, MI 58-59. A worker syntype of A. tongispina measures HL 1.68, HW 1.34, ML 1.08 mm; Cl 80, MI 64. A. tongispina has very slender petiolar teeth over 0.25 mm long. A. haytianus has acute teeth, but these are not slender and are not much more than 0.1 mm long. A. haytianus has the head slightly broader across the vertex, and the outline of the anterior slope of the petiolar node more convex in side view, but these characters vary somewhat in both species.

Possibly both of these forms are more widespread on Hispaniola than we now know, but I failed to find them in the Dominican Republic during 3 weeks of intensive collecting there in 1976. The samples available are really inadequate to indicate the real status of these two forms, but I have chosen the hypothesis that they represent different species that replace each other geographically (and altitudinally?).

The following new species appears to be the Puerto Rican member of the superspecies: