8. Metapone hewitti Wheeler, 1919

(Figs 39–41)

Metapone hewitti Wheeler, 1919a: 62 — Male; Type locality: Kuching [01N, 110E], Sarawak, Malaysia. Metapone hewitti, Wheeler, 1919b: 190, Fig 7 — Male.

Known only from two male specimens (MCZC—with red “Cotype” labels originally added by Wheeler). One has the postpetiole and gaster detached and glued to its mounting point, the other is undamaged. The latter is here designated lectotype, the former paralectotype (both so labelled). Their dimensions are respectively: HW (across eyes) 1.26, 1.24; MSL 2.32, 2.33. The lectotype is illustrated here.

Because it is male based, the epithet M. hewitti is functionally inaccessible as a species name, or a potential junior or senior synonym of other species recognized here, until males considered conspecific with the lectotype are collected with conspecific workers or gynes. The species, of course, is probably not yet represented in collections by its gyne or worker castes, so conspecificity and junior synonymy with prior species seems statistically unlikely. We consider the lectotype not to be conspecific with the male investigated phylogenetically by Ward et.al (2014), or with male types of the Sri Lankan M. greeni, the Bornean M. quadridentata or the Javanese M. javana, which have been examined here.