Crematogaster colei Buren 1968, STAT. REV.
Creators: name: Ward, Philip S.
name: Blaimer, Bonnie B.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Formicidae
Crematogaster
Crematogaster colei

description: CREMATOGASTER COLEI BUREN, 1968, STAT. REV.
(FIG. 20)
Crematogaster colei Buren, 1968: 108.
Holotype worker, Wooten, Sacramento Mts., New Mexico, 7500 ft, 4 July 1917 (Wheeler) (USNM) (USNMENT00528846) (examined).
Junior synonym of C. vermiculata: Morgan & Mackay, 2017: 396; here overturned.
Worker measurements (N = 12): HW 0.73–1.06, HL 0.71–0.99, SL 0.68–0.89, WL 0.82–1.19, MtFL 0.71– 1.01, MSC 0–2, A4SC 0–11, PP-SL/HW 0.12–0.15, CI 1.03–1.09, OI 0.25–0.28, SI 0.82–0.92, MtFL/HW 0.94– 1.00, SPL/HW 0.21–0.26, SPTD/HW 0.48–0.60.
Discussion: Morphological and phylogenomic data affirm that C. colei and C. vermiculata are distantly related, falling in the C. opaca clade and C. lineolata clade, respectively (Fig. 1). Crematogaster colei can be recognized by the features mentioned by Buren (1968), particularly the relatively elongate scapes (SI 0.82–0.92, SL/HL 0.88–0.96) and well-developed hemilobes of the postpetiole that are sharply angulate in profile. This species is also characterized by relatively long legs (MtFL/HW 0.94–1.00, MtFL/HL 0.99–1.08), long propodeal spines (SPL/HW 0.21–0.26), sparse standing pilosity (MSC 0–2, A4SC 0–11) and predominantly reticulate-foveolate sculpture on the mesosoma, overlain by weak rugulae. Crematogaster vermiculata is different: it has relatively short scapes (SI 0.72–0.78), short legs (MtFL/HW 0.79–0.84), short propodeal spines (SPL/HW 0.17–0.21), more abundant standing pilosity (MSC 3–9, A4SC 9–20) and distinctive rugulose sculpture on the promesonotum (see further discussion under that species). Crematogaster colei is actually more similar to C. californica, C. depilis and C. opuntiae (see below) than to C. vermiculata. It can be distinguished from those three taxa by the longer legs (see measurements cited above, compared to MtFL/HW 0.80–0.91 and MtFL/HL 0.84–0.98 in C. californica, C. depilis and C. opuntiae) (Fig. 42), smaller eye size (ED/MtFL 0.26–0.28 in C. colei, compared to ED/MtFL 0.29–0.37 in the other three taxa) and by the hemilobes of the postpetiole being weakly sculptured and sublucid (usually reticulatefoveolate and subopaque in the other three taxa). In addition, the postpetiolar seta is either absent or short in C. colei (PP-SL/HW 0–0.15) and usually present and longer (PP-SL/HW 0.12–0.21) in C. californica and C. opuntiae. For differences between C. colei and the newly described C. detecta, see under the latter species.
Distribution and biology: Crematogaster colei is a denizen of desert grassland and oak-pine-juniper woodland of the American South-West. It is known from west Texas, New Mexico, southern Utah, Arizona and northern Mexico. Colonies have been collected under stones and (once) in a dead branch of live oak.
description: Published as part of Ward, Philip S. & Blaimer, Bonnie B., 2022, Taxonomy in the phylogenomic era: species boundaries and phylogenetic relationships among North American ants of the Crematogaster scutellaris group (Formicidae: Hymenoptera), pp. 893-937 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 194 (3) on pages 912-914, DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlab047, http://zenodo.org/record/10115063