Phasmomyrmex (Myrmacantha) aberrans (Mayr)

Type location Ghana (Camponotus aberrans, Mayr, 1895: 152, queen only); worker from Zaïre, Kilempaka (Great Lakes Region - perhaps near Kataki, Lake Tanganyika), by Dr Gérard (Santschi, 1915c: 264); (see Bolton, 1995) .

Mayr's (1895) description of the queen is at . Santschi's (1915c) description of the worker is at .

WORKER (drawn specimen from Nigeria) - monomorphic but with a considerable size range. TL 5.89-7.38 mm, HL 1.43-1.87, HW 1.43-1.93, SL 1.37-1.80, PW 1.00-1.40
Colour black with orange extremities, shiny. Erect hairs short, absent from alitrunk and very sparse on head and gaster. Overall sculpturation of foveolate reticulation, coarsest on the head, size reducing to a fine puncturation on the gaster. Alitrunk with sides clearly marginate, plus paired upturned propodeal teeth. Metanotal groove a wide shallow depression. Petiole a scale with an acute central node and lateral processes with bifurcate teeth.

Also from the Congo areas (Wheeler, 1922).

Found in Ghana cocoa at Kade by Majer (1975, 1976b), by pkd, apparently two samples with 14-15 workers per sample. Eight workers were collected by canopy pkd in one area of a block of mature Amelonado cocoa at CRIG by Bigger (1981a). A specimen from Ghana is pictured in Hölldobler & Wilson (1990, page 139), and attributed to Bolton (unpublished).

In Nigeria, I found it nesting in dead wood on an indigenous tree at CRIN.

The photomontage is collated from - http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0403556
Collection details - Central African Republic: Prefecture Sangha-Mbaéré; Parc National Dzanga-Ndoki, 37.9 km 169° S Lidjombo; 02°22'14"N 016°10'21"E 360m Collection Information: Collection codes: BLF4128. Date: 20-28 May 2001. Collected by: B.L.Fisher. Method: EC30 beating low vegetation. Habitat: rainforest. Transect Type: Beat 25 sample transect, 10m Transect Sample No.: 06.