Proceratium mancum Mann

Brown, W. L., 1974, A remarkable new island isolate in the ant genus Proceratium (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)., Psyche 81, pp. 70-83 : 82

Proceratium mancum Mann

(1922, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 61 (13): 6 - 7, worker, queen; type locality: Cecilia, Honduras) is a new synonym of P. silaceum Roger (1863, Berlin. Entomol. Zeitschr., 7: 172, worker; type locality " Nord-America ").

The differences cited by Mann and listed in Snelling's key are all very variable in P. silaceum , as is body size. Specimens from the tropical part of the range usually have the petiolar node thinner from front to rear, and the posterior face is more or less concave and overhung by the slightly produced posterodorsal nodal border, but a tendency in this direction is seen in some northern specimens, for instance, in a worker from the Ouachita Mts. of southwestern Arkansas, and one from Schooler Lake, Choctaw Co., Oklahoma (W. L. Brown). The geographical gap between Honduras and eastern U. S. is now being filled in to some extent. Already in 1911, W. M. Wheeler had collected specimens in Guatemala (Quirigua and without locality except for the country), and now S. and J. Peck have sent samples from litter berlesates in Veracruz, Mexico: near Cordoba, and in the canyon of the Rio Metlac, near Fortin de las Flores. It should only be a matter of time until we have samples from east Texas and Tamaulipas. This case is paralleled by that of Cryptopone gilva , another ponerine that ranges from the U. S. down through the uplands of Mexico and Central America as far as Panama.