THE REDISCOVERY OF 
CAMPONOTUS (MYRMAPHAEN US ) YOGI WHEELER 
(HYMENOPTERA: FORMICIDAE) 
By Wm. S. Creighton, City College, New York' 1 
and Roy R. Smelling, Los Angeles County Museum 2 
No North American ant has been more of an enigma than 
Wheeler’s Camponotus yogi. Much of this is due to the fact that the 
two types of yogi were misplaced when a part of the Wheeler Col- 
lection was transferred from the Museum of Comparative Zoology to 
the American Museum of Natural History in 1938. For the next 
twenty-six years Wheeler’s description of yogi was the only source of 
information on this species ( 1 ) . Of necessity this description was 
the basis for the treatment of yogi in The Ants of North America 
(2). Unfortunately, one of the key features chosen (the length of 
the antennal scape) was incorrectly described by Wheeler; hence 
the key for yogi in the above publication is confusing rather than 
helpful. It appears that yogi has been saved from even greater con- 
fusion only because so little additional material has been taken. In 
1958 F. Raney found a few specimens at the Oak Creek Ranger 
Station in San Diego County, California. In 1963 the junior author 
took three colonies of yogi at Etiwanda, in San Bernardino County, 
California. The senior author at first refused to believe that this 
material could be yogi because it so obviously failed to agree with 
Wheeler’s description. Then, in 1964, the two types of yogi were 
discovered in the collection of the American Museum of Natural 
History. These established the fact that the Oak Creek and Etiwanda 
specimens are yogi. 
Several of the shortcomings of Wheeler’s description can be at- 
tributed to his attempt to relate yogi to the subgenus Colobopsis. 
Whether he realized it Gr not, Wheeler described important features 
of the head of the major of yogi from a position where it most 
closely resembled that of a Colobopsis major. That is to say, the 
head was not viewed in full face but tilted forward until the trun- 
cated anterior portion and the mandibles were barely visible. There 
is no possible doubt about this for the “broadly excised posterior 
border” which Wheeler described for the head of the yogi major 
Tmeritus Professor, Department of Biology 
2 Senior Preparator, Department of Entomology 
Published with a Grant-in-Aid of Research from the Society of the Sigma 
Xi. Manuscript received by the editor May 9, 1966 
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