Aphomomyrmex afer Emery

Type location Cameroun (Emery, 1899e: 494, all stages, illustrated) collected by Conradt and L. von Muralt; a specimen is pictured by Hölldobler & Wilson (1990, page 133); all forms known. Also known from South Africa, as the junior synonym muralti (described as a full species by Forel, 1910e: 449, worker only; synonymy by Snelling, 1979b; see Bolton, 1995) .

Emery's (1899e) description is at and for the sexual stages at . Forel's (1910e) description of muralti is at . Arnold (1920a) gave a translation of the descriptions by Emery (1899e) and Forel (1910e) for muralti - this is at .

Essentially - the colour is black, with appendages rusty red, the scape paler; generally very shining and smooth, finely puncturate on the sides of the head, thorax and gaster. Fine greyish pubescence on thorax and gaster; also a few pilous hairs.
Head subquadrate, a little narrower in front, posterior angles rounded, the eyes placed in the middle of the sides, with three ocelli forming a large triangle.

WORKER - HL 0.605-0.992 mm, HW 0.348-0.547; SL 0.333-0.531 - these ranges, as determined in a specific study by Meunier et al. (1999), together with their observation that the overall morphology was constant across the size range, do not support the description by Snelling (1979b) of the species as being "polymorphic". Mandible with 5-6 teeth on apical margin, basal tooth greatly offset. Median lobe of clypeus, broader than long, moderately convex longitudinally and transversely; apical margin projecting slightly. Antennal scape not reaching occipital margin. Occipital margin broadly and weakly concave; concavity most pronounced in smallest workers. Alitrunk wider than long; convex in profile, with abrupt descent into metanotal groove. Propodeum broader than long, sides gently convex; declivity flat in profile, twice as long as dorsum; spiracle large. Petiole node a scale. Acidopore with conspicuous long fringe.

The photomontage is collated and slightly enhanced from the Antweb.org site at http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0101212 Collection Information: Specimen Code CASENT0101212; Locality Cameroon: [Ndian Dist:. The Rack, Korup For. Res.; D. McKay, coll, Ex Leonardoxa africana]; Collection codes: ANTC3231; Date: 8 Feb 1979; Collected by: D. McKey

Closely related to Petalomyrmex phylax, the only other African member of the Tribe. Both ant species are inhabitants of subspecies of the forest understorey tree Leonardoxa africana and have been extensively studied by Doyle McKey and colleagues - see McKey studies for details and reference list. In Cameroun, A. afer primarily occupies the L. africana subspecies letouzeyi (ssp L3 or T3 in earlier papers), but it also has been found, albeit much more rarely, in hollow twigs of another myrmecophyte Vitex grandifolia. In L. africana letouzeyi, A. afer tends homopterans inside the domatia (specialised "ant cavities"). The homopterans have been identified as a coccid, Houardia abdita, and/or a pseudococcid, Paraputo anomla.

The subspecies letouzeyi McKey (2000) of L. africana is described as occurring in the wettest forests of Africa, the lowland forests near the Bight of Biafra, running east from Uwet Division in Calabar Province, Nigeria, across the border into western Cameroun, essentially in the dark understorey of wet, cloudy forest.

In his catalogue, Wheeler (1922) listed both species afer and muralti; citing also Arnold (1920a). To me, the highly specialised life style suggests that afer from Cameroun and muralti from Natal, South Africa, are indeed separate species but, as yet I know too little of the distribution of Vitex grandifolia.