Hypoponera lea (Santschi)

Type location Sierra Leone (Ponera lea, Santschi, 1937g: 73, illustrated, worker) collected at Njala by E Hargreaves; worker only described (new combination in Hypoponera, Bolton, 1995) .

Santschi's (1937g) is at . Santschi's (1938b) notes are at . It is curious that in a paper where he defined Hypoponera (see the Genus Introduction) Santschi did not consider lea as a member of the genus.

WORKER (Nigeria specimen) - TL 2.46 mm, HL 0.62, HW 0.5, SL 0.47, PW 0.34
Colour dark yellow-brown, shiny with relatively dense pilosity. Eyes small, 2-3 facets. Clypeus with short carina, not ridged in the middle. Dorsum of propodeum a little longer than the declivity, and with clear angle at junction (in part after Bernard, 1952).

In Nigeria occasionally collected on cocoa trees, perhaps tending Homoptera. Nests in crevices and in ground at the base of trees (e.g. at CRIN Coffee Block S8, in a dead tree stump).

Also found in Ghana cocoa leaf litter and nesting in dead wood on the ground at the Mampong Cemetery farm (Room, 1971).

The photomontage is of a specimen from Gabon, collected by Yves Braet, 2006. Other images can be seen in the folders at - Other images can be seen in the folders at - and .