Aenictus rotundatus Mayr
  Type location South
Africa (Aenictus rotundatus
nov. spec., Mayr, 1901b: 1, worker) Port Elisabeth, Cape Colony - see below
subspecies merwei
(Aenictus rotundatus Mayr,
var. merwei, nov., Santschi,
1932a: 382, worker) from South Africa, Cape Province, i.1920,
v.d.. Merwe; images that are near identical to the type can be seen at http://www.antweb.org/specimenImages.do?code=casent0911439
workers only
described (see Bolton, 1995)  .
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 Amended translation taken from Arnold (1915: 138), plus
his notes -
(Plate IV., fig. 37. right) Mayr, Ann. K.E.N.H. Mus. Wien, vol.
16, p. I, P 1901.
Worker - TL. 2.3-3.8 mm. Reddish ochre, the basal
segment of the abdomen in some specimens a little paler dorsally.
Smooth, very shining and with a few small punctures on the head,
pronotum and abdomen; mesonotum, propodeum and petiole shallowly and
rather unevenly reticulate-punctate and dull, but with a slight gloss
on the dorsal surfaces. Fine pubescent hairs absent, except on the
funiculus. There is a long, yellowish and rather sparse pilosity on the
petiole and abdomen, and also, but less regular and scantier, on the
head, scape and thorax.
Head, excluding the mandibles, very little longer than
wide in the larger examples, and about one-sixth longer than wide in
the smaller, as wide behind as in front, widest in the middle, convex
above and at the sides, very feebly emarginate posteriorly. The frontal
carinae are fused together posteriorly, anteriorly they curve round
above the very short clypeus, so as to form a semicircular rim round
the antennal sockets. The mandibles are elongate triangular, narrowed
at the base, dull, finely punctate-striate except along the masticatory
margin, which is smooth and shining, and furnished with about 8 or 9
small teeth, and a large sharp apical tooth. The scapes of the antennae
reach back as far as the posterior four-fifths of the head; lst-3rd
joints of the funiculus longer than wide, 4th, 5th, and 6th as wide as
long, 7th a trifle wider than long, 8th longer than wide, apical joint
two and a third times longer than wide. Pro- and mesonotum together
rather convex longitudinally; laterally the thorax is moderately
compressed, dorsally depressed between the mesonotum and propodeum. The
dorsum of the propodeum is widest in the middle, and one and
three-quarter times as long as wide; it slopes downwards from the
middle to the declivity. The latter is vertical, very short, one-third
the length of the dorsum, and feebly margined all round. The 1st joint
of the petiole is one-quarter longer than wide, very convex above, but
slightly so at the sides; the 2nd joint, seen from above, is narrower
in front than behind, and as wide posteriorly as it is long. The
ventral lamella of the 1st joint is produced anteriorly into an angular
projection pointing downwards, the 2nd joint is produced below and
anteriorly into a blunt projection directed forwards. The 1st abdominal
segment as long as, or a little longer than wide, and as long as the
remaining segments taken together. Legs long, the last joint of the
hind tarsi as long as the tibia.
Bulawayo, Port Elizabeth, (Braung.) (S.A.M., E.M., G.A.
colls.). Specimens in Arnold's collection had no pubescence on the
metasternum only long hairs.
With the finding at CRIN, Nigeria, of the form guineensis,
originally described as a stirps by Santschi (1924b), I feel that there
is sufficent merit to raise Aenictus
guineensis to species status.
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Mayr's (1901b) description is at 
The
photomontage is of a syntype worker collated
from 
The
photomontage is of a worker from Kenya collated
from