Camponotus (Myrmotrema) foraminosus Forel

Type location Senegambia (Forel, 1879a: 87, soldier & worker) collected at Cape Verde, by Sauss; subspecies aldabrensis (Forel, 1897c: 203, soldier & worker) from Aldabra Is; chrysogaster (Emery, 1895a: 182, soldier; Forel, 1907g: 90, queen & male) and honorus (Forel, 1910c: 268, worker) from Ethiopia, cuitensis (Forel, 1901d: 309, worker) from Angola, deductus (Santschi, 1915c: 268, in key, worker, not in Wheeler, 1922) from Nigeria, Calabar; dorsalis (Santschi, 1926b: 265, soldier, worker & queen) from Tanzania, and flavus (Stitz, 1916: 397, illustrated, soldier & worker) from Congo, collected at Fort Crampel, by Schubotz; (see Bolton, 1995) .

Forel's (1886f) notes on the major are at . Forel's (1913e) description of the queen is at . Forel's (1897c) description of aldabrensis is at . Emery's (1895a) description of chrysogaster is at . Forel's (1901d) description of cuitensis is at . Forel's (1910c) description of honorus is at . Forel's (1910c) reviewed the then knowledge, this is at . Stitz's (1916) illustrated description of flavus is at . Santschi (1915c) separated deducta from the type as having less dense pubescnece on the gaster. Santschi's (1926b) description of dorsalis is at .

The original description by Forel (1879a) is -
MAJOR - TL 7.8 mm; head and sculpturation similar to Camp. grandidieri, described from Madagascar, but the body shape and pubescence reveal differences. Head more or less triangular, with rounded sides. Mandibles short, narrow, with sparse hairs, 6 teeth; coarsely puncturate and finely striate between the punctures. Clypeus almost rectangular (square), without a carina, almost without an anterior lobe; anterior border scalloped laterally, straight medianly. Thorax quite low, enlarged anteriorly, strongly compressed posteriorly (like that of mina, type location Mexico, but shorter and less depressed). Dorsum of thorax shallowly convex and rounded transversely but near straight longitudinally to the propodeum, which is very narrow, of the same length as the declivity; the transition being an obtuse rounded angle; declivity near flat. Thorax sutures distinct but not impressed. Petiole scale low (as in mina). Gaster small, a short wide oval. Legs and antennae of medium length.
Matt or slightly silky; thorax, gastral dorsum, head, and anterior of femora puncturate like the head of a thimble; this puncturation very finely packed. Antenna, legs and genae finely or fairly finely reticulate. Petiole scale, declivity of propodeum and gaster dorsum transversely reticulo-rugose. Head richly sprinkled with large piligerous points; on the genae these points become large rounded hair-pits, each giving rise to a small hair (as in grandidieri), overall giving the head a scabrous appearance.
Whole of body covered with a grey-yellow pubescence, of moderate length; sparse on the head, lower legs, scapes and ventral gaster; more abundant on the thorax, femora and lateral gaster; very dense and slightly golden on dorsum of gaster hiding the chitinous cuticle and looking like a fur coat. Erect hairs are sparse on the whole body, and absent on the tibiae and scapes.
Colour black; a narrow yellowish border to the gastral segments; appendages and anterior border of head mostly brown-red; ends of legs and antennae and the edges of the thorax black-brown and brown-black.
Single specimen from Senegal, Cap Vert, near Dakar, collected by Sauss.

Collingwood (1985) refers to it as having large shallow punctures on the head, as does ilgii (below), but the latter also has a deep metanotal groove.

Wheeler (1922) listed findings from throughout sub-Saharan Africa, with West African records from Nigeria (Old Calabar, by Bates), Cameroun (Conradt). He wrote, however, that it is an extremely variable species, the Zaïre specimens, according to Emery, having more abundant and more golden pubescence than Congo specimens sent by Forel as corresponding to the type. Zaïre collections included nests in hollow twigs and cavities of branches.

Nests in dead wood on living trees. It often nests in old dry pods on cocoa trees (Forel, 1915c, from St. Gabriel, by Kohl). Apparently wholly tends aphids, but does not build tents. Also forages widely across the ground and on many plants; including native trees and herbaceous vegetation, kola and plantain.

In Ghana, speculatively, this is the species reported as Camponotus foraminosus Forel, by Majer (1975) who collected workers on cocoa by pkd at Kade. Room (1971) collected it from one cocoa canopy sample, and also listed Camponotus near foraminosus from six cocoa canopy samples; he found it to be positively associated with Crematogaster africana.

The distribution comment by Bernard (1952), reporting its finding in Guinea, Mt. Nimba savanna areas of Ziéla and Kéoulenta, was that it is a common insect of the lowland plain.

In their report on species from Saudi Arabia, Collingwood & Agosti (1996), from their key (separating it from carbo), the description was - body colour uniformly dark; head with front part with large scattered pits, genae with projecting hairs, head with projecting hairs restricted to anterior of eyes, antennae not broadening to apex.