Hypoponera ragusai (Emery)
Type location Sicily (Ponera ragusai, Emery,
1894h: 28, worker, also Emery, 1895b: 65; name changed by Emery,
1911, to ragusae; Santschi, 1907: 313, queen & male;
listed in Wheeler, 1922) collected by Ragusa; subspecies bulawayensis
(Forel, 1913j: 203, worker; Arnold, 1915: 80) from Zimbabwe,
santschii (Emery, 1909c: 371, illustrated, worker &
queen) from Algeria, sordida (Santschi, 1914b: 54,
worker) from Kenya; junior synonyms lesnei
(Bondroit, 1916: 212, illustrated, worker; synonymy by Bernard:
1967: 88) from France, and massiliensis (Bondroit,
1920a: 158, replacement name for parva Bondroit, 1918: 85;
and its synonym gyptis Santschi, 1921b: 435) from France,
(combination in Hypoponera, Baroni Urbani, 1971c: 18, see
Bolton, 1995)  .
Emery's (1894h) description is at
Santschi's (1907) description of the queen and male are at
and  .
Emery's (1909c) illustrated description of the type and santschii
is at 
Forel's (1913j) description of bulawayensis is at
and Arnold's (1915) translation is at
Santschi's (1914b) description of sordida is at
 .
Bondroit's (1916) description of lesnei is at
 .
Bondroit's (1918) description of parva is at
 .
WORKER (after Bernard, 1952) - TL 2.4-2.8; yellowish-brown; head
straight, sides parallel; clypeus and thorax very shiny; mandibles
with 4 large and one small teeth; propodeum declivity shorter than
dorsum; elongated species similar to but smaller than punctatissima.
Given by Bernard (1952) as from the "Old World".
Wheeler (1922) listed it also from Egypt and Tanzania.
Egypt record - Hypoponera ragusai - one worker
(as Ponera ragusai) from Cairo by M Borcard (Santschi,
1908); Finzi (1936) about 10 collections at Helouan, Tor (Sinai),
Kidassah, Barrage, Cairo (Pyramids & Meadi), Wadi Digla and
Wadi Feran. |
The
photomontage is of specimens from Israel, Tel Aviv, 1.vii.1999,
collected and sent to BT by Armin Ionescu; these seem a closer
match to the variety santschii Emery, than to the type
form. Other images can be seen in the folder at -
