 WORKER
- TL 5.7 mm, HL 1.24, HW 1.24, SL 1.24 and PW 0.68
Overall colour castaneous, but legs yellow, shiny. Dorsum of head
finely striate. Alitrunk striate, coarser on propodeum, and meso-
and metanotal grooves both distinct. Apex of the petiolar node is
emarginate with two blunt teeth. Eyes moderately large, length
0.19 mm.
Wheeler (1922) listed findings from Ghana at Aburi (F.
Silvestri); Cameroun at Mundame (Conradt), Victoria (F.
Silvestri), Bibundi (Tessmann) and Molundu (Schultze); plus
elsewhere in Congo eastwards.
From Guinea, Bernard (1952) recorded - 2 yellowish
workers from Station B 8.24, Nimba; 6 workers with black cheeks,
N'Zo; 4 dark brown workers, Camp IV, forest, 1000 m. He noted that
this is the most common and most variable of the species, found in
¾ of the continent, plus Madagascar.
Brown (1978c) described it as oft-collected and reported it as
ranging throughout the forested regions of West and Central Africa
as far south as northern Angola, southern Zaïre; eastwards to
Uganda and southern Sudan; and north-west to Liberia, at
Gibi (W.M. Mann). He described finding it foraging only at night
in the Ivory Coast (Brown, 1976).
In Nigeria, I collected it from soil and debris
aggregations in crevices of mature cocoa trees at CRIN; also from
a rotten log (B. Bolton).
Similar Ghana findings in cocoa and Lantana scrub
at the Mampong Cemetery farm (Room, 1971). Also from cocoa
mistletoe (Room, 1975). Two workers were collected by pkd at Kade
by Majer (1975, 1976b); and it occurred in leaf litter samples
(176 workers, from six sampling sites) at cocoa farms, primary and
secondary forest scattered throughout the semi-deciduous forest
zone, by Belshaw & Bolton (1994b).
The photomontage is of a specimen from the Zimbabwe National
Museum -
http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=sam-hym-c002513a.
Specimen Code: SAM-HYM-C002513A
Specimen Images
Locality: Uganda: Mabira Forest; 01°00'00"S 032°00'00"E
Collection Information: Collection codes: SAM-HYM-C002513 Date:
22 Apr 1952
Collected by: Nat. Mus. S. Rhodesia
A specimen of a queen can be seen on the Antweb.org site at
http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0101408
Collection Information: Specimen Code CASENT0101408; Locality
Zaire (Democratic Republic of the Congo): [Loango Forét du
Bavuoge, Museum Paris, Vadon 1911]; Collection codes: ANTC3608. It
has the original label "Anochetus sylvaticus" - "Type
Sants(chi)" but should not be confused with Anochetus
silvaticus described by Bernard (1952) which is a junior
synonym of
Anochetus
traegaordhi. Brown (1978) does not refer to the specimen
nor the name "sylvaticus" and Santschi does not
seem to have published any description. |
