Mesoponera weberi (Bernard)
  Type location Guinea
(Euponera (Xiphopelta) weberi, Bernard, 1952: 194, illustrated,
worker; in Pachycondyla
Bolton, 1995: 311; new placement by Schmidt & Shattuck, 2014: 111),
Kéoulenta savanna, Mt. Nimba (27-iii-1942, Lamotte); holotype
worker only found and described; named in honour of N.A. Weber (see
Bolton, 1995)  .
|
 TL 3.2 mm, HL 0.8, HW 0.55 mm.
Colour red-brown, darker on the gaster, antennal lobe and mandible
bases; appendages yellow. Overall shiny but head, thorax and abdomen
with very visible medium reticulation. Propodeum and petiole smoother.
Sparse white hairs, dense on the petiole scale, white pubescence on the
head. Head shape parallel for most of its length, unlike its larger
relatives. Clypeus yellow, with large puncturations, anteriorly
sinuated, median point blunt. Mandibles yellow, little puncturated,
distinctly differing from other "Xiphopelta" by the progressive
widening; 13 large, contiguous, yellow but somewhat inequal, teeth.
Eyes small, some 8 facets, 3.5 times further from mandible bases than
their length. Frontal lobes more angular than other relatives.
Propodeum (epinotum) with obtuse angle, the two faces seeming equal.
|
The
photomontage of the type worker is collated from