Phrynoponera bequaerti Wheeler
  Type location Zaïre
(Wheeler, 1922: 79, illustrated, queen) - no type images on Antweb
(April 2015)
Queen only described (see
Bolton, 1995)  .
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 Wheeler separated the single female by its small size,
lack of teeth on the anterior clypeal border, and a long median
petiolar spine. Description (after Wheeler) -
FEMALE (dealated), TL 6 mm; resembling gabonensis and heteroda
but much smaller. Head as broad as long, posterior border near
straight, sides very feebly and evenly convex; eyes large, moderately
convex, with their posterior at the middle of the sides. Mandibles
shaped as in gabonensis, with obliquely, bluntly 4-toothed
apical borders. Clypeus short, with broadly rounded, entire anterior
border, elevated centre somewhat concave with a ridge on each side.
Antennae short and thick, scapes scarcely passing occiput; first
funiculus segment nearly as long as broad, remaining segments, except
last, distinctly broader than long. Thorax as broad as head, shaped
much as in gabonensis but propodeal teeth proportionally
longer, being longer than broad at their bases, and as long as the
distance between their bases. Petiole with longer spines than in gabonensis,
the lateral spines being as long as the remainder of the segment and
the median tooth as long as the lateral.
Mandibles smooth and shining, with very coarse, sparse punctures, most
numerous near the inner border. Remainder of body subopaque, except
borders of frontal carinae which are smooth and shining. Head
reticulate-rugose, rather coarsely on the sides, on the front and
vertex more finely, the rugae scarcely longitudinal. Thorax covered
with coarse umbilicate foveolae, largest on the mesonotum but all over
so close as to give a reticulate-rugose appearance . Anterior petiole
similarly sculptured but the meshes elongate. Gaster appearing more
longitudinally striate. Legs and scapes nearly opaque and coriaceous.
Pilosity and pubescence much as in gabonensis and heteroda
but the hairs more recumbent on the head and body.
Black, mandibles, frontal carinae and legs dark brown.
In Ghana, 13 workers (?) were found by Belshaw
& Bolton (1994b) in leaf litter samples from cocoa and primary
forest at Kade. The authority for their determinations of the
apparently previously unknown worker morph was not given.
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The
photomontage is of a worker from Gabon, Pongara National Park;
collector Yves Braet (Gabon 130).