The Ants of Africa SUBFAMILY CERAPACHYINAE - Genus Simopone

SUBFAMILY CERAPACHYINAE

Genus Simopone Forel (1891b: 139)

Diagnostic Features - Tibial spurs absent from the middle legs, claws usually with a single preapical tooth.

Forel's (1891b) genus definition is at .

Bolton (1973a) described this as a genus of rare, arboreal and mainly nocturnal ants, nesting in hollow twigs or rotten branches. Kutter (1976) noted that 7 species were known from tropical Africa (according to Brown, 1975). Brown (1975) noted that the food habits were unknown. Bolton (1990a) gives a total of nine species from Africa, without giving any names.

Menozzi (1930b) recorded a single specimen of what he felt was a distinctive form of Simopone from Somalia, but, as the specimen lacked antennae, he hesitated to give more than a cursory description - this is at .

Key to workers known from Africa (after Brown, 1975)

¤	Queen only known	Cameroun - annettae
¤	Queen only known	Cameroun - matthiasi
1	Antennae with 12 segments; small, TL 2.4-3.4 mm; shining yellow species, with elongate petiole	West Africa & Congo Basin - conciliatrix
--	Antennae with 11 segments	2
2	Large black species, TL 8.5 mm; petiole width > 0.9 mm; hind metatarsi with a deep elongate groove at base of flexor surface	Zaïre - grandis
--	Smaller, petiole width < 0.9 mm; hind tarsi with no more than a fine impressed line	3
3	Posterodorsal border of petiole slightly concave from above; most of dorsum finely and longitudinally striate; subopaque	4
--	Posterodorsal border of petiole straight to weakly convex from above	6
4	TL 5.5 mm; most of dorsum of head, dorsum of head, petiole and postpetiole finely, longitudinally striate and subopaque; very few erect hairs; black with rust appendages	West Africa - conradti
--	Most of body smooth and shining, with separated punctures	5
5	TL 7.0 mm; head only slightly longer than broad; few erect, long yellowish hairs more abundant on gaster; jet black, polished	Uganda - laevissima
--	TL 7.0 mm; head narrower; sparse pubescence of short recumbent golden hairs; reddish ochreous yellow	South Africa (Natal) - marleyi
6	TL 5.0 mm; large eyes; petiole node about as wide in front as behind; pilosity abundant and generally distributed; main part of head and body black, appendages yellow	Congo Basin - schoutedeni
--	TL 4.0-4.2 mm; eyes occupy about one-third of side of head and set forward of the mid-point; petiole node distinctly narrower in front; longer hairs of pilosity sparse, bilaterally paired on humeri and in sparse rows on the posterior margins of gaster segments; main part of body piceous to black, except petiole and postpetiole which are predominantly yellow	Zaïre - fulvinodis

© 2007 - Brian Taylor CBiol FIBiol FRES 11, Grazingfield, Wilford, Nottingham, NG11 7FN, U.K.

href="simopone.htm"