Carebara

Abstract: The revision of the American species of Carebara Westwood is offered. This study recognized one genus and 31 species (20 described as new) from United States to Argentina as follow: Carebara Westwood, 1840 (= Oligomyrmex Mayr, 1867 syn. nov.; = Aeromyrma Forel, 1891 syn. nov.; = Aneleus Emery, 1900 syn. nov.; = Erebomyrma Wheeler, 1903 syn. nov.; = Paedalgus Forel, 1911 syn. nov.; = Lecanomyrma Forel, 1913 syn. nov.; = Spelaeomyrmex Wheeler, 1922 syn. nov.; = Hendecatella Wheeler, 1927 syn. nov.; = Solenops Karawajew, 1930 syn. nov.; = Sporocleptes Arnold, 1948 syn. nov.; = Crateropsis Patrizi, 1948 syn. nov.; = Nimbamyrma Bernard, 1953 syn. nov.; = Afroxyidris Belshaw & Bolton, 1994 syn. nov. (provisional); = Neoblepharidatta Sheela & Narendran, 1997 syn. nov). The following species complexes and species are recognized and proposed: Carebara concinna SPECIES COMPLEX: C. longii (Wheeler) comb. nov. (USA); C. peruviana (Emery) comb. nov. (Peru); C. urichi (Wheeler) comb. nov. (Mexico to Brazil) [= Erebomyrma nevermanni Mann syn. nov.; = Erebomyrma morai (Menozzi) syn. nov.; = Erebomyrma eidmanni Menozzi syn. nov.; = Erebomyrma urichi (Wheeler); = Oligomyrmex nevermanni (Mann); = O. morai (Menozzi); = O. eidmanni (Menozzi)] and C. brevipilosa sp. nov. (Costa Rica to Brazil). Carebara lignata SPECIES COMPLEX: C. anophthalma (Emery) (Brazil, Ecuador, Guyana) [= C. winifredae Wheeler syn. nov.]; C. bicarinata Santschi (French Guiana); C. bruchi (Santschi) comb. nov. (Argentina); C. coeca sp. nov. (Brazil, Colombia); C. elongata sp. nov. (Colombia); C. globularia sp. nov. (Colombia); C. incierta n.n. (Brazil); C. longiceps (Santschi) comb. nov. (Argentina); C. mayri (Forel) (Paraguay); C. minuta sp. nov. (Brazil); C. panamensis (Wheeler) comb. nov. (Panama); C. reticulata sp. nov. (Colombia); C. stenoptera (Kusnezov) comb. nov. (Argentina); C. tenua sp. nov. (Brazil). Carebara escherichi SPECIES COMPLEX: C. angulata sp. nov. (Colombia, Ecuador); C. audita sp. nov. (Colombia); C. brasiliana sp. nov. (Brazil); C. inca sp. nov. (Peru); C. intermedia sp. nov. (Belice); C. kofana sp. nov. (Colombia); C. majeri sp. nov. (Brazil); C. nuda sp. nov. Brazil; C. paya sp. nov. (Colombia); C. pilosa sp. nov. (Brazil); C. reina sp. nov. (Colombia); C. striata sp. nov. (Colombia, Brazil, Peru) and C. semistriata sp. nov. (Colombia). The following combinations are proposed for the Old World species of Paedalgus: Carebara distincta (Bolton & Belshaw) comb. nov., Carebara escherichi (Forel) comb. nov., Carebara infima (Santschi) comb. nov., Carebara octata (Bolton & Belshaw) comb. nov., Carebara pisinna (Bolton & Belshaw) comb. nov., Carebara rara (Bolton & Belshaw) comb. nov., Carebara robertsoni (Bolton & Belshaw) comb. nov., Carebara sarita (Bolton & Belshaw) comb. nov., Carebara sudanensis (Bolton & Belshaw) comb. nov. and Carebara termitolestes (Wheeler) comb. nov. The definive knowledge of the taxonomy of Carebara needs to await more complete series, including female, male and especially major with minor workers (in the dimorphic species). C. minuta would be one of the smallest ant species of the World with a head width of 0.21 mm and total length slightly below 1 mm.

Abstract: In this paper the genus Pheidologeton Mayr, 1862 is synonymized under Carebara Westwood, 1840 and the Carebara polita group is established and revised. This species group currently includes six species from the Afrotropical region (C. madibai, C. nicotianae, C. perpusilla, C. polita, C. silvestrii, and C. villiersi) and two species from the Neotropical region (C. brevipilosa and C. urichi). The polita group clearly links Carebara and Pheidologeton, and, due to a lack of autapomorphic characters for the latter, a separation of the two genera is no longer justified. As a result Carebara is presented as a monophyletic and better defined genus that can be separated from other genera with more confidence. We present an overview of the distribution and biology of Carebara as well as images from the various genera currently in synonymy under Carebara, and discuss the characters they share. The polymorphism present in Afrotropical and Malagasy Carebara is discussed and one new species from Africa, C. madibai sp. n., is described. The subspecies Carebara perpusilla arnoldiana syn. n., Carebara perpusilla concedens syn. n., and Carebara perpusilla spinosa syn. n. are new synonyms of Carebara perpusilla. Oligomyrmex politus nicotianae is re-elevated to species level and transferred into Carebara, C. nicotianae comb. n., stat. rev.; C. punctata is a new synonym of C. silvestrii comb. n. and C. pygmaea albipes comb. n., syn n., C. pygmaea bugnioni comb. n., syn. n., and C. simularensis syn. n. are new synonyms of C. pygmaea comb. n.. The following names are transferred from Pheidologeton to Carebara as new combinations (with the species epithets adjusted to female endings where necessary): aberrans, affinis, affinis javana, affinis minor, affinis spinosior, affinis sumatrensis, ceylonensis, dentiviris, diversa, diversa draco, diversa ficta, diversa laotina, diversa macgregori, diversa philippina, diversa standfussi, diversa taprobanae, diversa tenuirugosa, diversa williamsi, hammoniae, hostilis, kunensis, latinoda, maccus, mayri, melanocephala, melasolena, nana, nanningensis, obscura, petulens, pullata, pungens, pygmaea, rubra, rugiceps, rugosa, schossnicensis, silena, silvestrii, solitaria, transversalis, trechideros, varia, vespilla, volsellata, yanoi, and zengchengensis. Three new combinations are creating secondary junior homonyms and are here replaced with new names: C. mayri (Santschi, 1928) = C. gustavmayri nom. n., C. rugosa (Karavaiev, 1935) = C. rugoflabella nom. n., and C. silvestrii (Wheeler, 1929b) = C. luzonensis nom. n. Two new combinations are creating secondary junior homonyms among species already in Carebara: C. taprobanae (Forel, 1911a) = C. sinhala nom. n., and C. nana Santschi, 1919 = C. pumilia nom. n.

Abstract: Phragmotic or "door head" ants have evolved independently in several ant genera across the world, but in Africa only one case has been documented until now. Carebara elmenteitae (Patrizi) is known from only a single phragmotic major worker collected from sifted leaf-litter near Lake Elmenteita in Kenya, but here the worker castes of two species collected from Kakamega Forest, a small rainforest in Western Kenya, are studied. Phragmotic major workers were previously identified as Carebara elmenteitae and non-phragmotic major and minor workers were assigned to Carebara thoracica (Weber). Using evidence of both morphological and next-generation sequencing analysis, it is shown that phragmotic and non-phragmotic workers of the two different species are actually the same and that neither name - Carebara elmenteitae or Carebara thoracica - correctly applies to them. Instead, this and another closey related species from Ivory Coast are both morphologically different from Carebara elmenteitae, and thus they are described as the new species Carebara phragmotica sp. n. and Carebara lilith sp. n.

Abstract: The myrmicine ant genus Carebara is recorded for the first time in Saudi Arabia from the Arabian Peninsula as a whole. A new species Carebara abuhurayri sp. n. is described based on workers collected from Al Bahah region. One of the smallest ant species known to occur in Arabia, Carebara abuhurayri is found in an area inhabited by many ant species including Tetramorium sericeiventre Emery, 1877, Pheidole minuscula Bernard, 1952, Pheidole sp., Monomorium destructor (Jerdon, 1851), Monomorium exiguum (Forel, 1894) and Monomorium sp. and Crematogaster sp.