The Ants of Africa

	The Ants of Africa SUBFAMILY FORMICINAE - Genus Cataglyphis
Contents - Formicinae - FORMICINAE Introduction

Genus Cataglyphis Foerster (1850b: 493)

In Tribe FORMICINI, previously in Tribe PRENOLEPIDINI. Reviewed by Agosti (1990: 457).

{Cataglyphis nodus} Diagnostic Features - Legs very long. Antennae 12-segmented and inserted very close to the posterior margin of the clypeus. Eyes and ocelli present, the eyes set behind the mid-length of the head. Mandibles strongly dentate. Psammophore on the anterior ventral surface of the head. Metapleuron with a distinct wide orifice for the metapleural gland; the orifice protected by a line or tuft of guard hairs. Propodeal spiracle an elongate vertical or near-vertical ellipse. Petiole nodiform or squamiform node. Acidopore borne on a conical projection of the hypopigium and surrounded by a fringe of hair.

Foerster's (1850b) genus definition (of the male) is at . Mayr's (1855: 381) definition of Monocombus (synonymised with cataglyphis by Mayr, 1861: 44) is at . Agosti's (1990) review is at .

Unlikely to be found in the forest zone as the species are confined to savannah and semi-desert. Cataglyphis fortis from North Africa is pictured by Hölldobler & Wilson (1990, page 134) and the genus has been reviewed down to the species-group level by Agosti (1990). Example illustration right.

The "North African" species Cataglyphis bicolor, however, has a "subspecies" seticornis listed by Bolton (1995) as first described from Ghana but this is in conflict with the review by Agosti - although Wheeler (1922) cited the type location for seticornis as "Gold Coast" (from Emery, 1898c). It seems that either or both the following species may be found in coastal West Africa. Both are within the Cataglyphis bicolor group as separated by Agosti (1990).

Key to workers - based on Emery (1906b), Agosti (1990a) and Collingwood & Agosti (1996, Saudi Arabia key)

1	Petiole with anterior face and dorsum meeting at an angle	2
--	Petiole wholly domed; TL of majors more than 9 mm	bicolor-group - 5
2	Dimorphic, major with long falciform mandibles	bombycinus-group - 3
--	Monomorphic, mandibles arcuate but not elongated	albicans-group - 4
.	bombycinus-group	.
3	Dimorphic, soldier TL 15 mm, minors TL 5.5-8.0 mm, soldier with falciform mandibles, with a cleft posterior to the apical tooth; erect hairs on maxillary palp segment 3 at least as long as half the segment; gaster brown (separation according to Kugler, 1981)	Libya east to Egypt; Sudan & Mali - bombycinus
.	Minor	.
	albicans-group	.
4	TL rarely reaches 9 mm; gaster at least black; remainder red or black TL 3.75-8.0 mm; uniform shiny black (? piceous-brown) - HW of largest worker > 2 mm, scape shorter than HW; petiole node with flat slope height to length 4.5 : 4; head sculptured	Sudan - albicans
--	Petiole relatively short	from South Asia (reported wrongly from Ghana) - setipes
--	TL 5.5-6 mm; head in full face view with weakly convex convex occiput; petiole profile angular; bicoloured head and alitrunk yellow-red, gaster shiny black	Ethiopia - franchettii - new status
.	bicolor-group	.
5	Petiole with a low dome, distinctly longer than wide; TL 7.0-9.5 mm; overall smaller and most of head and body somewhat shinier, with reduced sculpturation; gaster by contrast is less shiny than bicolor with a heavier sculpture that matches the rest of the body	Ethiopia - abyssinicus complex - abyssinicus
--	Petiole relatively short	6
.	Petiole relatively short	.
6	Petiole node with angular summit	7
--	Petiole node smoothly domed; bicoloured workers which have appressed white to yellow pubescence on the hind tibiae; petiole as high as long; maxillary palps long, segment 4 longer than 5+6	bicolor complex - bicolor, desertorum and seticornis - 8
7	Petiole high and angular; TL 9-13 mm; head noticeably longer than wide; head & alitrunk brightly orange or yellow, gaster opaque, black	probably not in sub-Saharan Africa - viaticus-group - viaticus
--	Petiole a low node, with a vertical anterior face; red a little darker than the type bicolor (although less so than desertorum), appendages as the body; gaster matt black; occipitum, lower head and gaster and legs somewhat shiny; sides of alitrunk and femora pubescent; lower head, thorax and gaster pilous; upper body glabrous	West Africa and Congo Sahel zone - congolensis
.	bicolor complex	.
8	Whole of body and legs with coarse dark erect hairs or setae; major head widest anteriorly	coastal arid areas in Ghana & Ivory Coast - seticornis
--	Erect hairs numerous but quite short and fine; major head not widest anteriorly	9
9	Body overall uniformly dark black to blackish red	Ethiopia & Sudan - niger
--	Body bicoloured	10
10	Quite strongly bicoloured and with markedly convex profile to pro-mesonotum and propodeum	11
--	More robust with relatively short legs; profile of promesonotum and propodeum only shallowly convex; petiole perhaps a little higher; mandibles very coarsely striated; hind tarsi with dense coarse adpressed pubescence; matt except for occipitum; relatively weakly bicolour, very dark red, scape darker than rest of head, appendages brown red	Ethiopia - desertorum
11	Petiole profile slightly angled forward and with vertical faces below a relatively narrow dome; short erect hairs on all dorsal surfaces; pronotum with very weak pubescence, quite abundant on sides of propodeum and legs; major worker with legs red as with the body, brownish in smaller workers	Ethiopia & Sudan not from sub-Saharan Africa - bicolor
--	Petiole profile a near perfect dome; erect hairs very short, whitish or colourless, and confined to a few on the vertex and occiput, less on the pronotum and two pairs on the petiole, there are none on the propodeum or dorsum of the gaster; the pubescence is very sparse and minute; overall relatively more coarsely sculptured but glossier than bicolor; appendages dark mostly black in all workers	western Sahel - new species - ex Lenoir

Subfamily Formicinae

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