Cataglyphis albicans (Roger)

Agosti, Donat, 1990, Review and reclassification of Cataglyphis (Hymenoptera, Formicidae), Journal of Natural History 24, pp. 1457-1505 : 1491

Cataglyphis albicans (Roger)

Formica albicans Roger, 1859: 235 . Syntype workers, North Africa [no types to be found]. [Later changes: Cataglyphis albicans, Mayr, 1862: 701 ; Myrmecocystus viaticus r. albicans, Emery and Forel, 1879: 449 ; Myrmecocystus albicans, Emery, 1891: 17 ; Myrmecocystus albicans ssp. albicans, Emery, 1906: 51 ; Myrmecocystus albicans, Karavaiev, 1911: 10 ; Cataglyphis albicans, Santschi, 1912: 149 ; Cataglyphis albicans, Santschi, 1919: 246 ; Myrmecocystus (Cataglyphis) albicans, Karavaiev, 1924: 305 ; Cataglyphis (Cataglyphis) albicans, Emery, 1925: 262 ; Cataglyphis albicans, Collingwood and Yarrow, 1969: 85 .] [= Myrmecocystus pallida, Saunders, 1890: 202, misidentification.] Forel (1890b: 67) mentioned two varieties, ‘noire’ and ‘rougeâtre’ without giving further descriptions.

Male genital characters indicate that at least two species must be included under the current albicans : the type population from North Africa and the Iberian population, which differ in the sagitta and subgenital plate, the Iberian albicans sharing those characters with fortis of the same species-group (see drawings in Martinez, 1987: 128). Tinaut and Plaza (1989) propose, therefore, that albicans should be restricted to the North African species and that ibericus should be the name used for the Iberican species.