Crematogaster vermiculata Emery 1895
Creators: name: Ward, Philip S.
name: Blaimer, Bonnie B.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Formicidae
Crematogaster
Crematogaster vermiculata

description: CREMATOGASTER VERMICULATA EMERY, 1895
(FIG. 32)
Crematogaster vermiculata Emery, 1895: 286.
Two syntype workers, ‘ Los Angeles’ (Pergande) (MSNG) (examined). One worker here designated lectotype (CASENT0923320). See comments below about type locality.
Crematogaster coarctata subsp. vermiculata Emery; Creighton 1950: 209.
Crematogaster vermiculata Emery; Buren 1968: 91, 112.
Senior synonym of Crematogaster colei Buren, C. opuntiae Buren and C. rossi Buren (Morgan & Mackay 2017: 396); here reversed.
Worker measurements (N = 10): HW 0.67–0.85, HL 0.64–0.81, SL 0.52–0.63, WL 0.72–0.93, MtFL 0.56– 0.7, MSC 3–9, A4SC 9–20, PP-SL/HW 0.14–0.21, CI 1.01–1.08, OI 0.23–0.26, SI 0.72–0.78, MtFL/HW 0.79–0.84, SPL/HW 0.17–0.21, SPTD/HW 0.39–0.48.
Discussion: This is a distinctive arboreal species of Crematogaster restricted to cypress and hardwood swamps of the south-eastern United States. It belongs to the C. lineolata clade, and its closest relatives are the Caribbean species, C. lucayana and C. sanguinea (Fig. 1). Workers of C. vermiculata are easily recognized by the striking rugulose sculpture on the promesonotum that imparts a vermiculate (worm-like) appearance, a feature not seen in any other species in the United States. Crematogaster vermiculata also has notably short scapes and legs (SI 0.72–0.78, SL/HL 0.75–0.82, MtFL/HW 0.79–0.84, MtFL/HL 0.84–0.89) and moderately conspicuous standing pilosity on the mesosoma (uo to four hairs on each pronotal humerus and one to three on the mesonotal declivity) and on the gaster (MSC 3–9, A4SC 9–20). The propodeal spines are relatively short and stout (SPL/HW 0.17– 0.21, SPL/WL 0.15–0.19) and, in dorsal view, inwardly curved and directed posterad (SPTD/HW 0.39–0.48). Although the type locality is Los Angeles, California, the type specimens agree in all respects with the wellknown swamp-inhabiting species of the south-eastern United States, and there is no species in California – or indeed in all of western North America – that matches C. vermiculata. Hence we concur with Buren (1968) and Johnson (1988) that the type locality cited in the original description (Los Angeles) is an error. This is by no means the only locality or labelling error that can be attributed to Pergande; see other examples cited by Gregg (1969: 101), Ward (2000: 89) and Wetterer (2015: 132). Buren’s (1968) findings were overlooked by Morgan & Mackay (2017), who reverted to an outdated concept of C. vermiculata as a western Nearctic species, with outlying populations in south-eastern United States, and they synonymized three western species (C. colei, C. opuntiae and C. rossi) under C. vermiculata. These three taxa are not closely related to C. vermiculata (Fig. 1), nor do they bear any close morphological resemblance to that species.
Type notes: The two syntype workers of C. vermiculata are deposited in MSNG [not MHNG, as indicated by Morgan & Mackay (2017)] and are labelled ‘Los Angeles |Calif.’ and ‘ SYNTYPUS | Crematogaster |ver miculata|det. Emery, 1895’. One of the two workers also has a label with ‘No.|372’. The latter worker has been designated lectotype. There are four similar workers in the USNM labelled ‘ Los Angeles | Calif. ’, ‘ No. |372’ and ‘ Collection | T Pergande’, and one of these is additionally labelled ‘ Cremastogaster |vermiculata| Em. (372) Em. ’ in Pergande’s handwriting. These four workers in USNM are not true types, since Emery’s (1895: 286) description is based on two workers only, but they appear to be part of the same series. All six workers agree closely with Emery’s (1895) original description, particularly his mention of the almost parallel propodeal spines and the ‘peculiar worm-like sinuous wrinkled sculpture of the promesonotum’.
Distribution and biology: Crematogaster vermiculata occurs from North Carolina to Florida and west to Louisiana and Arkansas. It is a strictly arboreal species, inhabiting cypress and hardwood swamps (Johnson, 1988; Deyrup, 2017).
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 926-927, DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlab047, http://zenodo.org/record/10115063