Aenictus villiersi Bernard

Type location Guinea (Bernard, 1952: 221, illustrated, worker) Mt. Nimba, 4 workers, from north-east forest litter, 700 m, collector Villiers; worker only described (see Bolton, 1995) .

TL 3.0-3.2 mm; colour of head and thorax red, petiole, abodomen and appendages dark yellow. Very smooth and shiny, except posterior two-thirds of thorax sides, matt and shagreened. Pilosity yellow, not very dense but raised and very long, on all body and head. Generally, slender and convex, simliar to the Aenictus group eugenii-congolensis-mariae, but petiole and antennae distinct:-
Antennae relatively slender, funiculus segment 2 almost double the length of segment 1 and more than double that of 3. Thorax notably convex, flanks of mesonotum and propodeum strongly striated longitudinally.
With eugenii (known from South Africa) the petiole segments are angular dorsally, shagreened or puncturated, both segments having a ventral anterior tooth and a posterior pedicel which is cylindrical and puncturated. In contrast, in villiersi the dorsal and ventral aspects are rounded, without sharp ventral teeth; the pedicel is striated but the remainder of the petiole is smooth. The petiole type resembles that of mariae, a southern African species also (?) known from Cameroun (?), where the head is smaller and the funiculus shorter. It seemed that the group contains Aenictus mentu Weber, from Mt. Imatong, Sudan, but its petiole shape is lower and more slender (after Bernard, 1952).