Crematogaster (Atopogyne) clariventris Mayr

Type location Congo (ssp. of buchneri, Mayr, 1895: 139, worker; Forel, 1911e: 271, queen), collected at Loango Coast, by H. Brauns; plus subspecies biimpressa (as ssp. of buchneri, Mayr, 1895: 139, worker; stirps of clariventris, Santschi, 1930b: 69) from Congo, Kuilu River; worker and queen only described (see Bolton, 1995) .

Mayr's (1895) description, with that of biimpressa, is at .

WORKER (Nigeria specimens) - Size variable TL 3.89-6.33 mm; largest HL 1.43, HW 1.71, SL 1.00, PW 0.93
Distinctively coloured with head and alitrunk dark brown, gaster orange, shiny. Alitrunk and head finely striate. Dense pilosity but few erect hairs. Alitrunk profile rounded, mesonotal carina low, mesonotum descending steeply into an impressed metanotal groove. Propodeal spines moderately long, near straight and acute. Postpetiole with near rectangular lower anterior corners.

Wheeler (1922) included records from Liberia (?Nebena, by Scherer, listed in Forel, 1911e, queen), Nigeria (Oni Camp east of Lagos, by W.A. Lamborn) and Cameroun (Sjöstedt).

Santschi (1935) noted specimens from a nest at Kasai Kondue, Zaïre, collected by E Luja, size varying from 3 to 6 mm (more than that noted by Mayr.

Bernard (1952) noted that it was rare in the Mount Nimba, Guinea, collections; listing Gama, Zouépo (1000 m forest), and 1215 m, forest numerous workers; adding common in Africa save for southern areas.

The usual colony is made up of a number of small carton nests on lower storey trees, including cocoa (right) and kola.

A fairly common dominant throughout all cocoa in Nigeria, on about 8% of trees, where it tends Homoptera (Taylor, 1977; Taylor & Adedoyin, 1978). Adenuga and Adeboyeku (1987) report it as attending a homopteran on mango. Eguagie (1975) reported actual physical damage to the surface of young cocoa pods by this species, at Ikom in south-eastern Nigeria.

In Ghana, Collingwood (1968-69) suspected that many of Strickland's (1951a) references to Crematogaster depressa were actually of this species and Bolton (1970-71) listed it as one of the six most common carton-nesting Crematogaster species on cocoa (simply at CRIG or in Ghana is not clear) and noted that it was a common species. Leston (1973) also regarded it as a dominant in Ghana, and it was collected by Room (1971) in 30 selected samples as a dominant on cocoa canopy. Also from cocoa mistletoe (Room, 1972a, 1975), where it ranked third in terms of numbers of individuals (15,158) from 87 of 630 samples (14%), the occurrence, however, ranked it only 7th at the cocoa/mistletoe junction and 11th on mistletoe plants (on 15% of the plants surveyed). Majer found it in 3.5% of his 144 pkd samples at Kade, with 600-1000 workers per sample (1975, 1976a, b, c). In a survey of an area of Amelonado cocoa at CRIG, Bigger (1981a) found it to occupy 84% of the available trees. He also found it on 35.8% of cocoa trees of 338 trees scattered at 29 virus outbreak sites The species actually occurred at 13 sites of which 11 were at CRIG). Campbell (1994) investigated its associations with Homoptera, showing a close association with Stictococcus sjostedti. Finally, it was found by Belshaw & Bolton (1994b), as a 'tourist', in leaf litter samples under cocoa at Asiakwa and Bunso in the semi-deciduous forest zone.

The photomontage is of a specimen from the Central African Republic, Dzanga-Sangha NP; Bayanga-Gdjombo; 07.vi.1998; 10.30-12.30 h, collector Philippe Annoyer. Other images can be seen in the folder at -