Dorylus (Dorylus) aegyptiacus Mayr - revived status

Male Type location Egypt (Dorylus aegyptiacus nov. sp., Mayr, 1865: 76, male; Emery, 1915g: 3, worker, no description but reported as collected with males in Eritrea; as variety of affinis, Emery 1895j: 704; junior synonym abyssinicus, Emery, 1895j: 717, worker) from Ethiopia .

Revived from status of variety of Dorylus affinis, used by various authors since Emery (1892c: lv).

Mayr's (1865) description of the male aegyptiacus is at . Emery's (1877b: 318) description of "brevinodosus" workers is at . Emery (1895j: 717) gave a further description, with reattribution of the specimens reported as brevinodosus in 1877, this is at .

The photomontage is of a male from Sudan, Dinder (Aldinder) National Park Centre 11°21' N and 35°02' E along Sudan-Ethiopian Boundary; collector Awatif Omer. Other images can be seen in the folder at -

From the Santschi (1917c) key to "Dorylus affinis" males, one can extrapolate more on the male as - TL 20-21 mm, HW < 4.0; upper border of head more or less convex (oblique from the ocelli to the compound eyes); from above the line from the neck to the compound eyes is weakly concave; second segment of funiculus not longer than the first; reddish-yellow; gaster without erect pilosity on segments 3,4 & 5; pubescence thinner than affinis.

The specimen shown here clearly matches those criteria.

Israel major - from Israel, Hod Hasharon, Tel Aviv, 23.x.1972, collector J Kugler, sent to BT by Armin Ionescu, Tel Aviv University. With the shorter head, more convex posterior angles, finer sculpture, etc, which appear to characterise brevinodosus and aegyptiacus/abyssinicus - i.e. the northern forms.

The pygidium seen from above matches the Emery (1877b) illustrations of the "Typhlopone brevinodosa" specimen from Keren (see above for Emery's correction to aegyptiacus.

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Israel media

Other images can be seen in the folder at -