Cerapachys foreli (Santschi)
Type locality Ghana (Phyracaces foreli, Santschi,
1914d: 309, worker, Aburi, F. Silvestri, 1913; Santschi, 1915c:
245, queen; combination in Cerapachys and synonymy, Brown,
1975: 22); junior synonyms langi from Zaïre (Phyracaces
langi, Wheeler, 1922: 54, illustrated, worker & queen) and
santschii from Gabon (Phyracaces santschii,
Wheeler, 1922: 56, queen); (see Bolton, 1995). Note I have
revived
Cerapachys
occipitalis (Bernard) from Brown's synonymy
 .
Santschi's (1914d) description is at
and his (1915c) description of the female, from Gabon,
Samkita, by F. Faure, with small diagrams of female and worker
petiole dorsum) is at
 .
Nigeria specimens - TL 3.73 mm, HL 0.78, HW 0.68, SL 0.39, PW
0.50 (in my guide as Phyracaces langi) Colour black,
shiny. Extremities red-brown, orange tarsi. Abundant coarse hairs
all over. Smooth areas on front of head, scattered small foveolae
on remainder. Antenna 12-segmented with apical three segments
forming a club. Sculpturation of longitudinal striations on
alitrunk, less marked on lateral surfaces. Dorsum of petiole and
first gastral tergite with large foveolae, remainder of gaster
with small foveolae. Node of petiole distinctly marginate
laterally, armed posterodorsally with a pair of large teeth.
|
 From
Ghana, probably this species was reported from cocoa leaf
litter by Room (1971). Collected by pkd at Kade by Majer (1975);
and described as widespread by Belshaw & Bolton (1994b), 55
workers from leaf litter samples at eleven sites in the
semi-deciduous forest zone.
In Nigeria, I collected it from leaf litter (CRIN Block
E5/1) and on a cocoa pod growing at ground level. Nest in soil and
dead wood on the ground.
The Zaïre finding was a single collection of 7 workers and
8 females taken nesting in "mushroom-shaped termitarium
against a tree in the forest" (by Lang & Chapin, in
Wheeler, 1922).
Brown (1975: 61) noted that Raignier and van Boven had taken it
nesting in hollow twigs in Zaïre (Epulu and Reserve
Floristique de Yangambi, 29 March 1949); also listing silvestrii
findings by Ross & Leech, at 26 Km S of Uvira, at 800 m, 10
January 1958. He had found members climbing a tree trunk in sparse
single file in a copse in the tall grass Dabou Savanna (47 km west
of Abidjan), Ivory Coast - three ants (18 January 1963).
He also listed findings from Ghana at Tafo by B Bolton, 26
November 1970. He added that the West African specimens all
averaged considerably smaller that those from Congo and the
posterolateral teeth on the petiole were generally more developed
in the former.
The photomontage is of a cotype Cerapachys foreli (as
Phyraces langi) from Zaïre. It is collated
from the original photographs, which, together with enlarged
images, are from the MCZ, Harvard University, website at -
MCZ
link. |
The
photomontage is of a queen from Gabon, PongaraNational
Park; Gabon 183; 17-22.v.2006; Winkler funnel; leaf litter;
collected by Yves Braet.