Crematogaster vicina ^HNS REVISED STATUS

Crematogaster vicina Andre ^HNS, 1893b:151. Syntype worker: Jamaica, Montego Bay (M. Cockerell) . Wheeler, W.M. 1917:461: description of queen, male. Emery, 1922:134: combination in C. (Orthocrema) ^HNS. Forel, 1912:212: race of brevispinosa ^HNS.

Crematogaster vicina var. wighti Wheeler ^HNS, W.M. 1908a:161. Syntype worker: Jamaica, St. Margaret's Bay, procession on ground in woods (Wight) . Synonymy by Wheeler, W.M. 1917:461.

I cannot distinguish this species from torosa ^HNS on morphological grounds. It appears to be the only crinosa ^HNS complex species on Jamaica, and it is very abundant there. The workers build large, completely exposed carton nests that wrap around relatively narrow gauge stems on small trees. This nesting behavior is unique and highly distinctive within the crinosa ^HNS complex. All other crinosa ^HNS complex nests I have seen have been in dead wood, with at most small carton baffles around nest entrances and forming partitions inside the nest. Thus the population has been on Jamaica long enough to evolve this distinctive nesting behavior (or retained a primitive nesting behavior that has been lost everywhere else).