Mayria

Mayria
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Formicinae
Tribe:	Camponotini
Genus:	Camponotus
Subgenus:	Mayria; Forel, 1878
Type species
	Camponotus repens Specimen labels;

Mayr's Carpenter Ants

Diagnosis. Emery (1925). - "Worker and queen. - Medium species; dimorphism pronounced. Head of minors, medias, and queens almost as in Myrmentoma, but usually head of majors narrower anteriorly and more deeply emarginate posteriorly. Clypeus neither carinate medially nor subcarinate; without anterior lobe or with short, rounded or truncated lobe. Mandibles strongly arched, with 5 or 6 teeth. Mesosoma large anteriorly, narrow posteriorly; mesosomal dorsum not marginate, and with continuous profile, pronotum very arched and mesosoma almost straight posteriorly, or with propodeum concave dorsally, forming saddle-like profile, or with noticeable impression on meta-propodeal suture. Petiole thickly squamiform or nodiform. Abdominal segment III (gastral segment I) depressed in the typical species (C. madagascarensis, Forel), more-or-less normal in most other species. Male.- Ocelles present on summit of vertex (C. quadrimaculatus, Forel, gibber, Forel) (Plate 3, Figure 4). Remaining characters similar to Myrmentoma.

Geographical distribution of species. - Madagascar; some species inhabiting tropical Africa.

Note: This subgenus is very similar to Myrmentoma. Mayria is in some way intermediate between Myrmentoma and Tanaemyrmex of arrogans and natalensis species groups."

(Translated and edited by B. E. Boudinot, 17 February 2017.)

Mayria is currently a subgenus of Camponotus.

Malagasy Mayria

Key to Malagasy Camponotus Mayria

The Malagasy Mayria were revised by Rakotonirina and Fisher, 2018. The following is summarized from their study:

The subgenus Mayria is distributed across the Afrotropical region, members of this subgenus are characterized by a narrow frontal lobe, which partially covers the antennal insertion, an S-shaped frontal carina, which is strongly divergent posteriorly, a procoxa of normal size, a laterally narrow and low petiolar node, an elongate and narrow gaster, which is generally low and short anteriorly, and body sculpture varying from smooth and shiny to finely and densely imbricate.

As for most Camponotus species, minor and major worker castes exist within a colony of the subgenus Mayria. There are also various worker forms presenting continuous morphological variation between these two castes.

Minor worker

- Head elongate in full-face view, lateral margins slightly diverging posteriorly and start rounding at about posterior third of head; posterior margins more or less straight.

- Mandible triangular, basal margin as long as apical margin, which most frequently has six (or very rarely five) sharp teeth. - Palp formula: 6,4.

- Clypeus most frequently with broadly convex anterior margin, occasionally straight (Camponotus dromedarius, Camponotus lubbocki, Camponotus pulcher), projecting into triangular lobe (Camponotus liandia). Sometimes anterior margin bordered by lamella (Camponotus raina, Camponotus sada).

- Antenna with 12 antennomeres, with elongate flagellomeres; apical antennomere slightly longer than other flagellomeres; antennal scape long, generally its distal half surpassing the posterior cephalic margin.

- Frontal lobe narrow and partially covering the antennal insertion; frontal carina S-shaped, strongly divergent posteriorly.

- Compound eye large, protruding, its posterior margin usually located about one-half to one-third of the cephalic length from the posterior margin of the head.

- Mesosoma in lateral view, ranging from strongly arched to flat or with pronotum and mesonotum weakly convex, mesonotum and propodeum almost straight.

- Promesonotal suture visible.

- Pronotum with rounded humeral angle, without sharp margination between its dorsum and lateral face.

- Mesopleuron and propodeal surface together clearly longer than lateral portion of pronotum in lateral view.

- Metapleural gland lacking.

- Metanotal groove inconspicuous to clearly visible.

- Procoxa of normal size, maximum width as large as, or smaller than the width of mesopleuron.

- Middle and hind tibiae with single pectinate spur.

- Petiolar node laterally narrow and low.

- Gaster generally elongate and narrow, anteriorly low and short.

- Sculpture varying from smooth and shiny to finely and densely imbricate.

Major worker Major worker similar to minor worker, but differing by the following distinctive traits: larger head and mesosoma, antennal scape shorter, at most apical third extending beyond posterior margin of head, petiolar node much higher than long (flattened anteroposteriorly), lateral portion of head with scattered shallow punctures superimposed on finely and densely imbricate sculpture (C. lubbocki, C. liandia, and C. repens).

Synoptic list of the Malagasy Camponotus subgenus Mayria recognized:

Nomenclature

The following information is derived from Barry Bolton's Online Catalogue of the Ants of the World.

MAYRIA [subgenus of Camponotus]
- Mayria Forel, 1878: 369. Type-species: Mayria madagascarensis (junior secondary homonym in Camponotus, replaced by Camponotus repens), by monotypy.
- Mayria subgenus of Camponotus: Forel, 1894e: 227.
- Mayria senior synonym of Myrmosaga: Emery, 1925b: 121.
MYRMOSAGA [junior synonym of Mayria]
- Myrmosaga Forel, 1912i: 92 [as subgenus of Camponotus]. Type-species: Camponotus kelleri, by subsequent designation of Wheeler, W.M. 1913a: 81.
- [Type-species not Camponotus quadrimaculatus, unjustified subsequent designation by Forel, 1914a: 260.]
- Myrmosaga junior synonym of Mayria: Emery, 1925b: 121.

References

Ashmead, W. H. 1905c. A skeleton of a new arrangement of the families, subfamilies, tribes and genera of the ants, or the superfamily Formicoidea. Can. Entomol. 37: 381-384 (page 384, Mayria in Camponotinae, Camponotini)
Bolton, B. 2003. Synopsis and Classification of Formicidae. Mem. Am. Entomol. Inst. 71: 370pp (page 113, Mayria as subgenus of Camponotus)
Dalla Torre, K. W. von. 1893. Catalogus Hymenopterorum hucusque descriptorum systematicus et synonymicus. Vol. 7. Formicidae (Heterogyna). Leipzig: W. Engelmann, 289 pp. (page 219, Mayria in Camponotinae)
Emery, C. 1895l. Die Gattung Dorylus Fab. und die systematische Eintheilung der Formiciden. Zool. Jahrb. Abt. Syst. Geogr. Biol. Tiere 8: 685-778 (page 772, Mayria in Camponotinae, Camponotini)
Emery, C. 1925d. Hymenoptera. Fam. Formicidae. Subfam. Formicinae. Genera Insectorum 183: 1-302 (page 121, Mayria as subgenus of Camponotus; Mayria senior synonym of Myrmosaga)
Forel, A. 1878c. Études myrmécologiques en 1878 (première partie) avec l'anatomie du gésier des fourmis. Bull. Soc. Vaudoise Sci. Nat. 15: 337-392 (page 369, Mayria in Camponotinae [Camponotidae])
Forel, A. 1893b. Sur la classification de la famille des Formicides, avec remarques synonymiques. Ann. Soc. Entomol. Belg. 37: 161-167 (page 165, Mayria in Camponotinae, Camponotini)
Forel, A. 1894e. Quelques fourmis de Madagascar (récoltées par M. le Dr. Voltzkow); de Nouvelle Zélande (récoltées par M. W. W. Smith); de Nouvelle Calédonie (récoltées par M. Sommer); de Queensland (Australie) (récoltées par M. Wiederkehr); et de Perth (Australie. Ann. Soc. Entomol. Belg. 38: 226-237 (page 227, Mayria as subgenus of Camponotus)
Forel, A. 1914a. Le genre Camponotus Mayr et les genres voisins. Rev. Suisse Zool. 22: 257-276 (page 262, Mayria as subgenus of Camponotus)
Forel, A. 1917. Cadre synoptique actuel de la faune universelle des fourmis. Bull. Soc. Vaudoise Sci. Nat. 51: 229-253 (page 251, Mayria as subgenus of Camponotus)
Rasoamanana, N., Fisher, B.L. 2022. A taxonomic revision of the Malagasy endemic subgenus Mayria of the genus Camponotus (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) based on qualitative morphology and quantitative morphometric analyses. ZooKeys 1081: 137–231 (doi:10.3897/zookeys.1081.71872).
Wheeler, W. M. 1910b. Ants: their structure, development and behavior. New York: Columbia University Press, xxv + 663 pp. (page 144, Mayria in Camponotinae, Camponotini)
Wheeler, W. M. 1922i. Ants of the American Museum Congo expedition. A contribution to the myrmecology of Africa. VII. Keys to the genera and subgenera of ants. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 45: 631-710 (page 706, Mayria as subgenus of Camponotus)