Taxonomic history
Baroni Urbani, 1964b PDF: 31 (q.).Subspecies of Messor instabilis: Menozzi, 1926b PDF: 181.Junior synonym of Messor sanctus: Bernard, 1967a PDF: 148.Subspecies of Messor sanctus: Baroni Urbani, 1964b PDF: 30; Baroni Urbani, 1968e PDF: 430; Baroni Urbani, 1971c PDF: 65.Revived status as species: Collingwood & Yarrow, 1969 PDF: 63; Collingwood, 1978 PDF: 68; Schembri & Collingwood, 1981 PDF: 426.Material of the unavailable name Messor barbarus capitatus grandiceps by Collingwood, 1978 PDF: 68.The seed-harvestingMessor bouvieriis a polymorphic ant species with a monophasic allometry.
Theory on task-partitioning based on body size predicts larger ants should carry larger loads (larger seeds) than smaller ants. It is suggested that there is a 'weak' task matching between workers and seeds (Retana and Cerda 1994). In a more recent study Arnan (et al. 2011) foundsmaller ants are better at finding seeds and larger ants are better at transporting seeds. However they found thatM. bouvieriworkers did not find evidence for body size and tasks performed (Arnan et al. 2011)
Published Body Size Measurements:
Head width 0.9-2.2mm ( Retana and Cerda 1994, Arnan et al. 2011)
