Tetramorium flavithorax (Santschi)

Type location Ghana (Xiphomyrmex muralti strain flavithorax, Santschi, 1914d: 369, illustrated, worker) collected at Aburi by F. Silvestri, 1913; worker only described (see Bolton, 1995) .

Santschi's (1914d) description is at . Bolton's modern description (1980) is at .

WORKER - TL 2.1-2.3 mm; characterized by the strongly developed antennal scrobes with strong posterior and ventral margins, smooth mandibles and reduced sculpturation on the head and alitrunk. Colour distinctive, with head, pedicel and gaster black or blackish-brown, and alitrunk and appendages clear yellow (Bolton, 1980: 226, not illustrated).

A forest species of West Africa (Bolton, 1980). From Nigeria, at IITA (B.R. Critchley) and Ile Ife (J.T. Medler). Ivory Coast, at Tai Forest (T. Diomande), Bandama Forest (W.H. Gotwald and R. Schaefer), Nzi Noua and Banco Forest (W.L. Brown). Ghana records included that of P.M. Room (Room, 1971, as Xiphomyrmex flavithorax) in cocoa leaf litter and on herbs, nesting in dead wood on the ground at the Mampong Cemetery site; plus others at CRIG (B. Bolton; M. Bigger), Mampong and Kade (D. Leston), Mt. Atewa (B. Bolton), and Akosombo (C.A. Collingwood). Recently found in leaf litter by Belshaw & Bolton (1994b), they describe it as widespread (350 workers from 17 sites).

The photomontage is of a specimen from Ghana, collected by S Sky Stephens, 2006. Other images can be seen in the folder at -