title: Revision of the MalagasyCamponotus edmondispecies group (Hymenoptera, Formicidae, Formicinae): integrating qualitative morphology and multivariate morphometric analysis.
abstract: The MalagasyCamponotus edmondispecies group is revised based on both qualitative morphological traits and multivariate analysis of continuous morphometric data. To minimize the effect of the scaling properties of diverse traits due to worker caste polymorphism, and to achieve the desired near-linearity of data, morphometric analyses were done only on minor workers. The majority of traits exhibit broken scaling on head size, dividingCamponotusworkers into two discrete subcastes, minors and majors. This broken scaling prevents the application of algorithms that uses linear combination of data to the entire dataset, hence only minor workers were analyzed statistically. The elimination of major workers resulted in linearity and the data meet required assumptions. However, morphometric ratios for the subsets of minor and major workers were used in species descriptions and redefinitions. Prior species hypotheses and the goodness of clusters were tested on raw data by confirmatory linear discriminant analysis. Due to the small sample size available for some species, a factor known to reduce statistical reliability, hypotheses generated by exploratory analyses were tested with extreme care and species delimitations were inferred via the combined evidence of both qualitative (morphology and biology) and quantitative data. Altogether, fifteen species are recognized, of which 11 are new to science:Camponotus alamainasp. n.,Camponotus androysp. n.,Camponotus bevohitrasp. n.,Camponotus galokosp. n.,Camponotus matsilosp. n.,Camponotus mifakasp. n.,Camponotus orombesp. n.,Camponotus tafosp. n.,Camponotus tratrasp. n.,Camponotus varatrasp. n., andCamponotus zavosp. n.Four species are redescribed:Camponotus echinoploidesForel,Camponotus edmondiAndré,Camponotus ethicusForel, andCamponotus robustusRoger.Camponotus edmondi ernestiForel,syn. n.is synonymized underCamponotus edmondi. This revision also includes an identification key to species for both minor and major castes, information on geographic distribution and biology, taxonomic discussions, and descriptions of intraspecific variation. Traditional taxonomy and multivariate morphometric analysis are independent sources of information which, in combination, allow more precise species delimitation. Moreover, quantitative characters included in identification keys improve accuracy of determination in difficult cases.
authors.affiliation: Madagascar Biodiversity Center, BP 6257, Parc Botanique et Zoologique de Tsimbazaza, Antananarivo, Madagascar.
authors.forename: Jean Claude
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Rakotonirina
authors.affiliation: Entomology, California Academy of Sciences, 55 Music Concourse Drive, San Francisco, CA 94118, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Sándor
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Csősz
authors.affiliation: Entomology, California Academy of Sciences, 55 Music Concourse Drive, San Francisco, CA 94118, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Brian L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Fisher
keywords: Allometry; Camponotus; Madagascar; Malagasy region; exploratory data analysis; morphometrics; multivariate statistics; taxonomy