Camponotus (Myrmosaga) mombassae Forel revived status

Type locality Kenya (Forel, 1886f: 180, soldier) .

Forel's (1886) description of is at .

With the specimens from Tanzania, (three from Mkomazi), below, it is quite clear that mombassae is a genuine species and that the synonymy under Camponotus (Tanaemyrmex) acvapimensis, attributed to Wheeler (1922: 948) by Bolton (1995) was wrong. Wheeler gave no reason for his synonymy nor was there any indication that he had seen specimens of mombassae. In his description of Camponotus (Myrmosaga) jeanneli, Santschi (1914b) noted that was related also to C. mombassae "of which this may be a race". There are clear differences, however, between jeanneli and mombassae and this very obviously is not a Tanaemyrmex. Bolton (1995) also cites Emery (1896d: 372) as having mombassae as a subspecies of Camponotus (Tanaemyrmex) kersteni, that too was a synonymic list without reasons for the status change.

The photomontages are of specimens collected in Tanzania, at Mkomazi, by George McGavin. Other images can be seen in the folder at -