Taxonomic revision of imitating carpenter ants, Camponotus subgenus Myrmopytia (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) of Madagascar, using morphometry and qualitative traits

The ant genus Camponotus (Mayr, 1861) is one of the most abundant and species rich ant genera in the Malagasy zoogeographical region. Although this group is commonly encountered, its taxonomy is far from complete. Here, we clarify the taxonomy of the Malagasy-endemic Camponotus subgenus Myrmopytia (Emery, 1920). Species delimitation was based on traditional morphological characters and multivariate morphometric analyses, including exploratory Nest Centroid clustering and confirmatory cross-validated Linear Discriminant Analysis. Four species are recognized: Camponotus imitator (Forel, 1891), Camponotus jodina sp. n., Camponotus karaha sp. n., and Camponotus longicollis sp. n. All four species appear to mimic co-occurring Aphaenogaster species. A diagnosis of the subgenus Myrmopytia, species descriptions, an identification key based on minor and major subcastes of workers, and the known geographical distribution of each species are provided.

弓背蚁属（Camponotus，Mayr, 1861）是马达加斯加动物地理区中物种最为丰富、种群最为繁盛的蚁属之一。尽管该类群较为常见，但其分类学研究仍远未完善。本研究厘清了马达加斯加特有弓背蚁属（Camponotus）下的Myrmopytia亚属（Emery, 1920）的分类学问题。物种界定基于传统形态特征与多变量形态测量分析展开，涵盖探索性巢质心聚类（Nest Centroid clustering）与确认性交叉验证线性判别分析（Linear Discriminant Analysis）。本研究共确认4个有效物种：模仿弓背蚁（Camponotus imitator，Forel, 1891）、约达弓背蚁（Camponotus jodina，sp. n.）、卡拉哈弓背蚁（Camponotus karaha，sp. n.）以及长颈弓背蚁（Camponotus longicollis，sp. n.）。上述4个物种均拟态与其同域分布的厚结蚁属（Aphaenogaster）物种。本研究同时提供了Myrmopytia亚属的鉴别特征、各物种的形态描述、基于工蚁小型与大型亚品级的分类检索表，以及各物种已知的地理分布信息。