DISCOVERY OF A MAJOR WORKER IN 
CAMPONOTUS BRANNERI (MANN), A NEW 
COMBINATION (HYMENOPTERA: FORMICIDAE) 
By Walter W. Kempf, O.F.M.* 
Departamento de Biologia Animal, 
Universidade de Brasilia 
70.000 Brasilia, D.F., Brazil 
As entomologist to the Stanford expedition to Brazil, in 1911, 
W. M. Mann discovered in the environs of Abuna, on the upper 
Madeira river, Rondonia Territory, several workers of a bizarre- 
looking Formicine ant, at once distinguished by the peculiar head 
shape: the occiput is drawn out into a long, narrow neck. Suppos- 
ing to deal with a species characterized by a strictly monomorphic 
worker caste, Mann described these specimens as Dendromyrmex 
branneri, but admitting at the same time that it represented a very 
aberrant form in an otherwise strikingly homogeneous group. 
To my knowledge, this species has never since been collected 
again. So it came as a surprise when I received among ant material 
recently collected at Humaita, Amazonas State, Brazil (about 400 
km NE of Abun2, further down the Madeira river), by the expedi- 
tion of the Zoology Department of the “Faculdade de Ciencias 
Medicas e Biologicas de Botucatu, S.P.”, led by Dr. Virgilio Pereira 
da Silva, two workers of the same species associated with the hither- 
to unknown soldier or major worker. The latter proved that branneri 
is definitely not a Dendromyrmex but a true Camponotus, repre- 
senting another of the handful of spectacular species which this 
genus possesses in the western part of the Amazonas river drainage. 
Thanking Dr. Virgilio Pereira da Silva for letting me keep this 
interesting material, I give in the following a diagnosis of the soldier 
of C. branneri , redescribe the worker, and add a comment on the 
subgeneric allocation of the present species. 
Note on measurements. TL, for total length of body, is the sum- 
med length of head with closed mandibles, diagonal length of thorax 
(see WL), and axial length of petiole and the remainder of the nor- 
mally expanded abdominal segments; HL, for head length, is the 
* Father Kempf died while attending the International Congress of Entomology in 
Washington, on 20 August 1976. [Editor] 
Manuscript received hv the editor May 21, 1976. 
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