Camponotus (Myrmosericus) rufoglaucus subspecies syphax, Wheeler, W. M., 1922

Wheeler, W. M., 1922, The ants collected by the American Museum Congo Expedition., Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 45, pp. 39-269 : 246

Camponotus (Myrmosericus) rufoglaucus subspecies syphax , new subspecies

Plate XXII, Figure 1

Worker very similar to the subspecies zulu Emery from Natal and quite as large, the largest specimens measuring fully 9 mm., but not more slender than other forms of the species. The scapes and tibiae are distinctly compressed, the former as in C. eugenix Forel, but not so broad. Epinotum evenly arcuate in profile, without distinct base and declivity. Pubescence dull yellowish, not very long, slightly golden on the gaster of large individuals, only feebly converging at the mid-dorsal line on the posterior portions of the second and third segments. Color brownish black, the legs a little paler, the funiculi, cheeks, clypeus, mandibles, and tarsi castaneous. Gastric segments with very narrow, dull-yellowish posterior margins.

Numerous specimens from Zambi (type locality) and Boma (Lang, Chapin, and J. Bequaert).

The Zambi specimens are from three colonies, two of which bear the following notes. "Ants forming numerous small craters in the white sand (Pl. XXII, fig. 1). Only a few individuals were seen outside the nest before noon. The nest extended to a depth of 50 cm. below the surface." "Nest in the rotten base of a Hyphaene. No larvae nor pupae could be seen, though there were certainly as many as 1000 workers in the colony. The nest was loosely arranged in the soft, decomposing mass." Bequaert says of the specimens from Boma that they "run very swiftly and were nesting in the road."

Workers of this ant were sent to Prof. Emery, who compared them with his cotypes of the subspecies zulu. He pronounced them to belong to a new subspecies "with the pubescence on the gaster much more parallel and less sinuous."