Tetramorium africanum (Mayr)

Type location Ghana (Macromischa africana, Mayr, 1866a: 507, worker; Mayr, 1895: 131, queen); junior synonyms lamottei (Bernard, 1952: 247, illustrated, queen) from Guinea, Zouépo on Mt. Nimba, by Lamotte, and tessmanni (Forel, 1910e: 421, worker; synonymisation by Brown, 1964c: 12) from Equatorial Guinea, Alen, by Tessmann; worker and queen described (see Bolton, 1995) .

Mayr's (1866a) description is at . Mayr's (1895) description of the queen is at . Forel's (1910e) description of tessmanni is at . Bolton's modern description (1980) is at .

WORKER (drawn specimen from CRIN, Nigeria) - TL 3.67 mm, HL 0.84, HW 0.75, SL 0.86, PW 0.54 (in my guide as Macromischoides species T²)
Redefined by Bolton (1980, illustration of head and alitrunk)
Colour orange, gaster darker. Sculpturation, of faint rugae, limited to the alitrunk. Erect hairs only moderately abundant. Denticles well developed on the mandibles. Clypeus with slight emargination, anteriorly with a central carina, posterior apex depressed relative to the remainder of the dorsum of the head. Head only slightly narrowed posterior to the eyes, rounding into a near flat occipital margin; frontal carinae fairly short, not extending beyond the level of the eyes. No antennal scrobes, but antennae only slightly longer than occipital margin. Metanotal groove slightly impressed; propodeal spines narrow, flat and relatively short; no projecting metapleural lobes. Petiole with a short relatively thick peduncle; the node a smooth hemispherical dome in profile.

Forel (1916) noted that it constructed nests similar to those of T. aculeatum, but much bigger and that the sting was very powerful, akin to that of Tetraponera aethiops and much feared.

Bernard's (1952) record was of a single alate queen, from Zouépo, grassland at 1050 m; TL 4.3 mm. The head, thorax and petiole he described as all densely reticulo-striated, postpetiole and gaster smooth. Entirely red-orange, except sides of gaster yellower and shiny. His recognition of "lamottei" as a Tetramorium while he had Macromischoides for aculeatum (see above) perhaps adds to my reservations regarding the synonymy adopted by Bolton (1976).

Collected in Nigeria by my staff from the canopy of forest trees which were surveyed during felling operations at CRIN, listed by Bolton (1980).

Bolton (1980) described it as widespread in the forests of West and Central Africa, listing other findings from Liberia (no location); Ghana, at CRIG (by himself); Cameroun at Ntsama (by C.A. Collingwood); also Gabon and Zaïre, but the few records suggest that it is not a common species. Wheeler (1922) earlier listed it from Guinea (Conakry, F. Silvestri), Nigeria (Old Calabar, H. Brauns, in Mayr, 1895); Cameroun (Victoria, F. Silvestri; Mbalmajo to Ekeneli, G. Schwab) and Congo basin localities. Forel (1911f) reported africanum from Zaïre, Congo da Lemba by Mayné.