Polyrhachis monista Santschi
Type location Congo
(Polyrhachis monista n. sp.,
Santschi, 1910c: 398, illustrated, queen; Santschi, 1914d: 384,
illustrated, worker - links below; Bolton, 1973b: 343, illustrated, alitrunk and
petiole only), no location. .
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Nigeria
specimen (Taylor, 1978: 21). WORKER. TL 5.5-6.4 mm, HL 1.27-1.52, HW
1.22-1.41, SL 1.40-1.59, PW 0.96-1.04
Coarse erect, pale hairs on all dorsal surfaces and pubescence
generally sparse or absent. Unique development of the alitrunk, which
is not marginate and the dorsal surfaces of the pronotum and propodeum
rounded evenly into the sides. Both pronotum and propodeum armed with a
pair of thick spines. The pronotum is separated from the mesonotum by a
deep broad groove, and the mesonotum and propodeum are similarly
separated with the latter groove angled forwards to meet the former.
The petiole has four well-developed spines, the lateral pair being
longer than the dorsal pair. The anterodorsal border of the first
gastral segment has a sharp margin separating the concave anterior face
from the convex dorsal surface.
Arboreal, with nests usually being a mixture of silk and
vegetable particles, often between a pair of leaves. In Nigeria,
I found it on a native tree at CRIN. Bolton (1973b) had earlier
collections as being at Ibadan (J. Cloudsley-Thompson; R.H. Booker).
Earlier from CRIN, perhaps on 5-10% of cocoa in pkd collections from
two cocoa blocks, W13/2 and W18/1 (Booker, 1968).
Wheeler (1922) listed it from Ghana (at Aburi,
by F. Silvestri, the collection in Santschi, 1914d) and it was
collected from cocoa at Kade by Majer (1975).
Bolton's (1973b) distribution includes Ghana (probably
collected by F. Silvestri, see Bolton, 1995), Zaïre and Uganda but
without any details.
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