Technomyrmex (Technomyrmex) albipes (F.Smith)

Type location Sulawesi (Formica (Tapinoma) albipes, F. Smith, 1861b: 38, worker; Forel, 1891b: 98, queen; Karavaiev, 1926d: 441, male), junior synonyms albitarse (Motschulsky, 1863: 14, worker & queen; synonymy Emery, 1893f: 249) and nigrum (Tapinoma nigrum, Mayr, 1862: 703, worker, synonymy, Mayr, 1876: 83) from Sri Lanka, rufescens (Santschi, 1928c: 70, illustrated, worker) and vitiensis (Mann, 1921: 473, worker) from Fiji, also subspecies bruneipes (Forel, 1895e: 466, worker) and brunneus (Forel, 1895e: 467, worker) from India, cedarensis (Forel, 1915b: 85, worker & queen) from Australia, cordiformis (Viehmeyer, 1916a: 143, worker) from Singapore, rotundiceps (Karavaiev, 1926d: 443, worker) from Java, truncicola (as truncicolus, Weber, 1943c: 380, worker; spelling altered by Bolton, 1995: 403) from Sudan and wedda (Forel, 1913e: 663, worker & queen) from Sri Lanka (see Bolton, 1995) .

F Smith's (1861b) description is at . Mayr's (1862) description of nigrum is at . Santschi's (1928c) illustrated description of rufescens is at . Weber's (1943c) description of truncicola is at .

Bolton (2007: 68) has this as including only: type location Sulawesi (Formica (Tapinoma) albipes, F. Smith, 1861b: 38, worker; Forel, 1891b: 98, queen; Karavaiev, 1926d: 441, male), junior synonyms albitarse (Motschulsky, 1863: 14, worker & queen; synonymy Emery, 1893f: 249); bruneipes (Forel, 1895e: 466, worker) from Sri Lanka; nigrum (Tapinoma nigrum, Mayr, 1862: 703, worker, synonymy, Mayr, 1876: 83) from Sri Lanka; and wedda (Forel, 1913e: 663, worker & queen) from Sri Lanka .

Bolton's (2007: 68) redescription is at . He listed only two African records - Kenya (given as Tanzania), Mombasa (Ferrari) [a major seaport], and, South Africa, Witwatersrand, on goods imported from Mauritius, M. Bolton. He also separated Technomyrmex pallipes (with truncicolus (above) as a junior synonym), and, Technomyrmex vitiensis as distinct, also tramp species.

From Ghana, at the Mampong Cemetery Farm on herbs under cocoa, and in a cocoa canopy sample (Room, 1971). [I now suspect this may have been Technomyrmex andrei, which seems to be quite common in Nigeria and possibly Ghana; note not semiruber as I previosuly thought]

Collingwood (1985), reporting it from Saudi Arabia, noted that this is a distinctive dark species with pale tarsi and funiculus segments. Diagnostic characters he gave are - anterior border of clypeus with a shallow, rounded incision; tarsi very pale contrasting with the darker tibiae.

The photomontage of the type specimen is collated from the Brian Fisher website at Antweb species page