Centromyrmex sellaris Mayr

Type location Cameroun (Mayr, 1896: 230, worker) collector Y. Sjöstedt; worker only described (see Bolton, 1995) . Former subspecies Centromyrmex longiventris (Santschi, 1919b: 229, worker) from Victoria, F. Silvestri, is given species status.

Mayr's (1896) description is at .

Nigeria specimens -
WORKER - TL 5.32, HL 1.06, HW 0.93, SL 0.68, PW 0.78
Colour golden-brown, shiny with sparse erect hairs. Head coarsely punctate. Mandibles strongly down-curved. Eyes absent. Pronotum and mesonotum flat dorsally, pronotum strongly marginated anteriorly and laterally. Metanotal groove absent, propodeum pinched in and concave dorsally at midlength, posteriorly convex with almost vertical declivitous face. Coxae large, especially of anterior legs. Tarsi of all legs with numerous down-curved spines and stiff hairs. Apical tibial spurs of midlegs both small and simple. Hind tibiae with one large pectinate and one simple spur.

A subterranean ant usually found with termites, either in or under rotten logs, sometimes in outer galleries of termite mounds. The tarsal spines give traction on the walls of underground tunnels and are a good example of special structural modifications. According to Lévieux (1976a, 1983b), from Ivory Coast, at Lamto, the colony size is around 400 adults and the main food is termites.

Found in Nigeria at CRIN by me.

Belshaw & Bolton (1994b) mention, without naming species, that the Centromyrmex found in Ghana are obligatory termitolestic.