Polyrhachis weissi Santschi

Type location Congo (Santschi, 1910c: 395, illustrated, worker), collected at Brazzaville, by A. Weiss; junior synonyms balli (Santschi, 1939c: 10, worker) from Zaïre, collected at Gazi, by Beinaert, xii.1937; and conduensis (Forel, 1915c: 351, worker) from Zaïre, collected at Kasai, Kondue, by E. Luja; and crassa (Emery, 1921e: 23, illustrated, worker & queen) from Cameroun, collector L. Conradt, 1895; unavailable name phaenogaster (revoili ssp crassa, Emery, 1921e: 24, queen) from Cameroun (see Bolton, 1995) .

Santschi's (1910c) description is at . Forel's (1916) description - as revoili correction implied by Bolton (1973) - is at . Emery's (1921e) description of crassa is at . Santschi's (1939c) description of balli is at . Bolton's modern description (1973b) is at .

Forel (1915c) noted the conduensis worker as having a longer narrower head than the type, with straighter sides and more convex eyes; overall the striations on head and alitrunk are more pronounced.

WORKER (from Nigeria) - TL 5.7-6.1 mm, HL 1.40-1.48, HW 1.29-1.40, SL 1.66-1.74, PW 1.18-1.26
Head and body with numerous erect white to grey hairs; pubescence generally sparse and greyish. Head and dorsum finely longitudinally striate-rugose. Antennal funiculi with apical five or six segments light brown. Alitrunk not marginate and dorsum convex. Promesonotal suture faint but distinct, metanotal groove marked only by a line. Pronotum very broad, more than twice the width of the propodeum measured across the teeth. Pronotum with short acute spines and propodeum with small teeth. Petiole with moderately long dorsal and shorter lateral spines. Anterior face of first gastral segment shallowly concave.

Arboreal species constructing nests of silk and vegetable particles under or between leaves.

Bolton (1973b: 342, not illustrated) listed findings in Ghana, at CRIG (G.S. Cotterell; P.M. Room, July 1970); Aburi and Berekuso (P.M. Room), and Akuadom (A.H. Strickland). Found in 13/168 canopy samples, as Polyrhachis revoili by Room (1971). A single worker was collected by canopy pkd from a block of mature Amelonado cocoa at CRIG by Bigger (1981a). Later found by Belshaw & Bolton (1994b), who collected a single worker, as a 'tourist' in leaf litter under primary forest at Old Tafo.

Other references to it as Polyrhachis revoili include the report of Strickland (1951a), from Ghana cocoa, as an arboreal species making small circular carton nests on the underside of leaves, which is common in relatively restricted areas but rare elsewhere. Later found by Room, from cocoa mistletoe and his cocoa canopy samples (Room, 1971, 1975) but all these reports seem more likely to be Polyrhachis weissi (see above).

In Nigeria, we found it on cocoa at CRIN (Onipe 1/1, a vegetable tent/nest on a cocoa leaf, tree 58-26) and Ibule, the first Nigerian records.

Earlier Bernard (1952, not referenced by Bolton, 1973b) noting it was a primarily eastern species, unknown from north of Cameroun, had recorded it from Guinea, one worker of the typical form labelled "Nimba, Lamotte"; and one worker of the congolese variety conduensis of Polyrhachis revoili. He also separately listed 4 workers, 2 males and 2 queens from area F 43, Nion, deep forest, land of Elaeis (toads); close to "revoili", but probably new, for restudy.