Tetraponera aethiops F Smith

Type location South Africa (F Smith, 1877b: 71, worker; Santschi, 1911g: 207, male; Forel, 1913c: 352, queen); junior synonym spininoda (as Sima spininoda, André, 1892a: 51, worker & queen; from Gabon, Samkita, by F. Faure; synonymy Emery, 1912b: 97); all forms described (see Bolton, 1995) .

Smith's (1877b) description is at . André's (1892a) description of spininoda worker & queen is at . Santschi's (1911g) description of the male, from Gabon, is at . Emery's (1912b) illustrated description of the queen and what he determined as the new subgenus Pachysima is at . Arnold (1916: 174) gave a translation; this is at .

Wheeler (as Pachysima aethiops, 1922, illustrated, profile and full-face view) listed it from Nigeria (Oni Camp, east of Lagos, W.A. Lamborn), Cameroun (Bipindi, Zenker; Mundame, Conradt; Bibundi, Tessmann; Metit, G. Schwab); and many Congo basin locations. He gave considerable details - TL 9-10 mm, shining jet-black; living in the twigs of Barteria fistulosa, and in Cameroun, where Tessmann found it in and on the trunks of Epitaberna myrmoecia; much more square-headed than the free-ranging species, eyes smaller and nearer the posterior margin of the head, three ocelli; noticeable ventral processes on both the petiole and postpetiole. In the report of the Lang-Chapin expedition there also is much information on the relation between the ant and the plant (Bequaert, 1922) and on the woody structure of the plant (by Professor Bailey) (see Ant Plants).

The photomontage is of specimens collected in Cameroun - south-western tropical coastal forest area between Edéa and Campo (McKey Wolbachia project) - Cameroon 89 from location Bella, 18 April 2001; found in domatia of Barteria fistulosa (Wheeler illustration right above, click for linked page). Other images can be seen in the folder at -

The photomontage is of a queen from the Central African Republic, 2005. Other images can be seen in the folder at -