Camponotus ebneri Finzi 1930

Seifert, Bernhard, 2019, A taxonomic revision of the members of the Camponotus lateralis species group (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from Europe, Asia Minor and Caucasia, Soil Organisms 91 (1), pp. 7-32 : 15

Camponotus ebneri Finzi 1930 stat. nov.

This taxon has been described as Camponotus lateralis var. ebneri Finzi 1930 from the region of Beskinta to Dsebel Sanin in Lebanon. I examined the single type worker hosted in NHM Wien. It is labeled ‘Beskinta – Sannin, Liban. 16.VIII.’28. R. Ebner Mus. Caes. Vind.’, ‘ Type! Camponotus lateralis var. ebneri n. v. det. Finzi 1929’, ‘ANTWEB CASENT0915596’. The specimen is not ‘ganz schwarz’ as Finzi stated: the lateral pronotum is reddish and meso- and metapleuron reddish black. The taxon appears closely related to C. dalmaticus (Nylander 1849) . The type specimen of C. ebneri is allocated to the C. dalmaticus cluster when run as wild-card in an LDA considering the complete character set and all other entities listed in Tab. 2 and Tab. 3 . Yet, a synonymization with C. dalmaticus appears premature due to the apparently disjunct distribution and because the data of PrW/CS 1.25 and nPr 1.25 are outside the range known for C. dalmaticus ( Tab. 3 ). It is hypothesized here to represent an allopatric sister species.