Camponotus (Myrmopelta) chrysurus Gerstäcker
Type locality Kenya (Gerstäcker, 1871: 355, worker;
Forel, 1899b: 308, soldier & media); subspecies acutisquamis
(Mayr, 1902: 296, soldier & worker; Forel, 1913e: 670, queen;
Forel, 1916: 44, male; var. dotalis, Santschi, 1926a: 20,
worker, from Congo) from Cameroun, collected at
Bojongo, by R. Buchholz; and securifer (as ssp of
yvonnae, Emery, 1920c: 28, soldier, worker & queen) from
Cameroun, apellis (Forel, 1910c: 269, soldier &
worker; Wheeler, 1922: 972) from Angola; and yvonnae
(Forel, 1920c: 480, queen) from Zaïre, collected at
Kisangani [Stanleyville], by Kohl; (see Bolton, 1995)
 .
Gerstaecker's (1871) description is at
 .
Forel's (1899b) description of the soldier & media is at
 .
Mayr's (1902) description of acutisquamis is at
 .
Forel (1910c) gave more including acutisquamis and apellis;
this is at
Forel's (1916) description of the male of acutisquamis is
at 
Forel's (1920) description of yvonnae is at
Emery's (1920c) description of securifer is at
Forel (1915c) reported collections at St. Gabriel, Zaïre,
by Kohl - in a hollow tree, population very numerous, the cavity
in the tree was 20 cm in diameter and contained a nest made up of
carton forming horizontal cases.
The previously undescribed FEMALE he noted as TL 13-14; head a
third longer than wide posteriorly, an elongated trapezoid,
slightly wider posteriorly, with the occipital border weakly
concave. The anterior two thirds of the clypeus subtruncate, more
strongly in the workers, as with some Myrmamblys. The
scape surpasses the occiput by one and a half times its width.
Head a little narrower than the thorax. Mesonotum and scutellum
subopaque or feebly shiny. Wings slightly brownish tinted,
especially the radial cell. Otherwise like the worker. |
 Wheeler
(1922) also listed a Cameroun finding of acutisquamis by
Conradt.
Eguagie (1971) also reported it from Agodi and Mamu in Nigeria
but see
barbarossa.
From Ghana, Strickland (1951a) described it as an
arboreal species found on mature cocoa. Later collected by Room
(1971) in 19 cocoa canopy samples, with one case of it as a
dominant. In his studies of the fauna of cocoa mistletoe (Room,
1972a, 1975), it was 23rd in terms of insect abundance (160
individuals). Seven workers were collected by pkd from the canopy
of Amelonado cocoa at CRIG by Bigger (1981a).
Bernard (1952) reported it, as "ssp acutisquamus",
from Guinea, slightly abundant in savanna at Ziéla
and Kéoulenta; Camp IV at 1000 m; Camp II, at 1500 m;
crests at 1300 and 1600 m.
Specimens illustrated (above right) were collected in Cameroun
- south-western tropical coastal forest area between Edéa
and Campo (McKey Wolbachia project) - Cameroon 106 from
location JFK, 24 April 2001, on lianas and dead tree trunk in a
treefall gap.
I have separated these out as chrysurus on the basis of
the differences from
Camponotus
barbarossa -
Both morphs are lighter built and smaller. Scapes surpassing the
occipital margin. Alitrunk generally more convex in profile. The
petiole of the major has a fairly sharp apex with no median
indentation. Sparser and finer erect hairs, generally shinier
under the pilosity (but not polished like
Camponotus
vividus).
Other images can be seen in the folder at -
|
The
photomontage is a cotype of Camponotus chrysurus apellis from
Angola. The original photographs (mislabelled Camponotus
vividus F Smith 1858), together with enlarged images, are from
the MCZ, Harvard University, website at -