Tetramorium weitzeckeri, Emery, 1895

Garcia, Francisco Hita & Fischer, Georg, 2014, Additions to the taxonomy of the Afrotropical Tetramorium weitzeckeri species complex (Hymenoptera, Formicidae, Myrmicinae), with the description of a new species from Kenya, European Journal of Taxonomy 90, pp. 1-16 : 5-6

Synopsis of Afrotropical T. weitzeckeri species complex

Tetramorium bendai Hita Garcia, Fischer & Peters, 2010

Tetramorium boltoni Hita Garcia, Fischer & Peters, 2010

Tetramorium guineense ( Bernard, 1953)

Tetramorium humbloti Forel, 1891

= Tetramorium humbloti pembensis Forel, 1907

= Tetramorium humbloti victoriensis Forel, 1913

Tetramorium mpala Hita Garcia & Fischer sp. nov.

Tetramorium renae Hita Garcia, Fischer & Peters, 2010

Tetramorium sepultum Bolton, 1980

Tetramorium snellingi Hita Garcia, Fischer & Peters, 2010

Tetramorium tanaense Hita Garcia, Fischer & Peters, 2010

Tetramorium weitzeckeri Emery, 1895

= Tetramorium ebeninum Arnold, 1926

= Tetramorium escherichi Forel, 1910

= Tetramorium weitzeckeri edithae ( Weber, 1943)

= Tetramorium weitzeckeri nigellus ( Santschi, 1932)

Notes on biogeography and identification

New material has become available since the last revision of the T. weitzeckeri species group ( Hita Garcia et al. 2010); subsequently, the distribution ranges of a few species need to be adjusted. Fresh material from an ongoing inventory of the ant fauna of Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique revealed the presence of T. humbloti , T. sepultum and T. weitzeckeri . Even though their presence in Mozambique is not surprising, all three were previously unknown from that country. Hita Garcia et al. (2010) reported the absence of T. humbloti from Kenya, but some freshly identified material from the area around Nairobi clearly belongs to this species. The distribution range of T. tanaense is also larger than previously understood. It is now known from the forest of Arabuko Sokoke on the Kenyan coast, which is close to the type locality, and from Ndimba Forest Reserve located in south-eastern Tanzania close to the Indian Ocean.

Despite these new findings, the biogeographic composition of the complex has not changed significantly. Tetramorium boltoni , T. guineense , T. renae and T. snellingi are species found predominantly in the equatorial rainforest belt, whereas the species T. humbloti , T. sepultum and T. weitzeckeri are distributed in the drier eastern and southern parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Tetramorium tanaense seems to be endemic to the coastal forests of Eastern Africa in Kenya and Tanzania, and T. bendai is only known from one collection in Burundi (without any ecological information at all). Tetramorium mpala sp. nov. also seems to have a very restricted distribution because it is only known from its type locality in Central Kenya.

In addition, several non-taxonomists have used the identification key published in Hita Garcia et al. (2010) and, fortunately, provided feedback to us. The key seemed to have worked mostly well, but users drew attention to some problems in the key not anticipated back in 2010. These problems were mainly located in the part of the key dealing with the T. weitzeckeri species complex, especially the separation of T. guineense from T. weitzeckeri . Some series of the latter species from Tanzania and South Africa possess strongly developed cephalic ground sculpture almost as distinct as seen in T. guineense , which causes difficulties with the key, even though both species are certainly not conspecific and differ in various aspects. Consequently, we have modified the identification key to include these users’ first-hand experience in order to make the discrimination of T. guineense from T. weitzeckeri easier, as well as several other minor changes throughout the key.