Platythyrea modesta Emery

Type location Cameroun (Emery, 1899e: 467, worker) collected at Mundame by Conradt; worker and larval instar described (see Bolton, 1995) .

Emery's (1899e) description is at .

WORKER (Nigeria specimens) - TL 6.6 mm, HL 1.34, HW 1.15, SL 1.03 and PW 0.95 (in first edition index as Platythyrea frontalis).
Colour generally black, shiny with grey pubescence, extremities, red-brown. Eye ovoid with flattened anterior edge. Posterior edge of propodeum with a pair of small teeth. Posterior edge of petiole with paired lateral teeth and a single central dorsal tooth.

Wheeler (1922) noted it also from Equatorial Guinea and Congo.

Brown (1975: 45) found specimens to be generally somewhat larger than the specimen he chose as a cotype (syntype) , TL 7.5, HL 1.38, HW 1.14, SL 1.07, from the collection made by Conradt in Cameroun, 1895. He saw specimens from Kenya (G Allen & Brooks, Gilgil to Laikipia), Sudan (JG Myers, Khor Aba, Aloma Plateau), Uganda (Ross & Leech, 10m west of Jinja, 1200m), Zaïre (Ross & Leech at Thysville and 62 miles east of Kibombo, 14 August 1957); Gabon (Makokou, in rain forest, by I Lieberburg); Ghana (at Tafo, by B Bolton); and Ivory Coast (ORSTOM, 17 km w of Abidjan, by himself). The illustration of the petiole (right) is of a specimen collected near Kimbombo by Ross & Leech.

In Nigeria it was an uncommon, arboreal species which I recorded twice on cocoa at CRIN.

Collingwood (1985, illustrated), recording it from Saudi Arabia, noted that it is an active predator with a relatively sharp sting; and was collected from an exposed rock in bright sunshine.

The photomontage of a specimen from South Africa is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=SAM-HYM-C000992b
Collection Information: Specimen Code SAM-HYM-C000992B; Locality South Africa: Natal: Mkuze Game Reserve, nr Malibali Hide; 27°39'00"S 032°11'00"E 130 m; Collection codes: SAM-HYM-C000992; Date: 25 Feb 1988; Collected by: H.G.Robertson; Method: breaking open dead branches/wood; Habitat: woodland: open