Cataulacus weissi Santschi

Type location Congo (Santschi, 1913c: 310, worker; Forel, 1916: 427, queen & male) collected at Brazzaville, by A. Weiss, 1907; junior synonyms plectroniae (Wheeler, 1922: 199, worker) from Zaïre; and aethiops (C. jeanneli var. aethiops (Santschi, 1924b: 220, worker) from Zaïre, collected at Kidada-Kitabola by H. Schouteden, and Burumbu by Bequaert; all forms known (see Bolton, 1995) .

Santschi's (1913c) description is at . Forel's (1916) description of the queen and male is at . Santschi's (1924b) description of aethiops is at , Bolton's modern description (1974a) is at . Bolton (1982) simply had "syn. n." with no comment.

WORKER (Nigeria specimens) - TL 3.3-3.6 mm, HL 0.82-0.96, HW 0.74-0.86, SL 0.40-0.50, PW 0.60-0.70
Occipital corners and remainder of head behind the eyes only denticulate. Dorsum of head and alitrunk with fine loose rugoreticulum. Simple blunt hairs numerous all over. Alitrunk marginate laterally with the margins denticulate. Propodeal spines short and acute. Subpetiolar process complex with the posteroventral angle a long heel or spur. Subpostpetiolar process digitiform.

Otherwise, it seems to have a scarce but wide distribution across West African forests, with records from Ivory Coast, Banco Forest (W.L.Brown) and Ghana (D. Leston) (Bolton, 1974a).

Curiously, my record of it, from low vegetation in Nigeria (at CRIN Block W22), seems to have been overlooked by Bolton (1982).

Wheeler (1922) described variety plectroniae from Stanleyville, Zaïre, collected by Lang & Chapin, two dozen specimens from the cavities of a species of Plectronia. Bequaert (1922, p 467) also noted its being found in Randia myrmecophila. Another record is of it nesting in myrmecophilous plants, notably in the swollen, hollow stems of Rothmannia sp. of Rubiaceae (Hölldobler & Wilson, 1990, page 538).
The photomontage is collated from http://mcz-28168.oeb.harvard.edu/mcz/FMPro?-DB=Image.fm&-Lay=web&-Format=images.htm&Species_ID=9230&-Find