SUBFAMILY MYRMICINAE - Genus Rhoptromyrmex
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The Ants of
Africa SUBFAMILY MYRMICINAE - Genus Rhoptromyrmex |
| Contents - Myrmicinae - MYRMICINAE Introduction |
In Tribe TETRAMORIINI.
Diagnostic Features - Similar to Tetramorium but propodeum of most African species unarmed, and palp formula 3,2; no antennal scrobes and frontal carinae short; head distinctly heart-shaped.
Mayr's (1901b) genus description is at 
. Arnold (1917) gave a translation and
provided a key to South African species, this is at 
.
Bolton (1976, 1986) described five African species, of which three are from West Africa and or the Congo Basin. Members of the genus are described by Bolton (1986) as general feeders, collecting living and dead arthropods, tending homoptera and feeding at plant nectaries; i.e. having a similar life style to their tetramoriine cousins.
NOTE: Placed under Tetramorium by Ward et al. (2015). "Rhoptromyrmex is synonymized (syn.n.) under Tetramorium, generating the following new combinations (unless otherwise noted) in Tetramorium: caritum, critchleyi, globulinodis, opacum and transversinodis" [African species only here].
Key to named species from Africa (derived from Bolton (1986a) -
| ¤ | Queen only known; light brown - see images on species page |
Uganda - caritus |
| 1 |  Antennae
11-segmented; TL 2.4-2.7 mm; propodeum with a
pair of spines or teeth; overall dense reticulo-puncturation |
. |
| . |  |
Nigeria & Cameroun - critchleyi |
| -- | Antennae 12-segmented; propodeum unarmed and rounded | 2 |
| 2 |  Alitrunk and usually
the head with dense
reticulo-puncturation giving an opaque appearance; TL 2.5 mm; maxillary
palp with 4 segments; darkish-yellow, head and alitrunk reddish |
. |
| . |  . |
West Africa & Congo Basin - opacus |
| -- | Alitrunk and head largely smooth and shiny; maxillary palp usually 3-segmented | 3 |
| 3 |  TL 3.3 mm;
postpetiole in dorsal view sub-globular, in
profile with a prominent rounded ventral protuberance; brownish-red,
appendages lighter |
. |
| . |  |
South Africa, Zaïre & Zimbabwe - globulinodis |
| -- |  TL 3.0 mm;
postpetiole in dorsal view much broader than
long; in profile without a prominent ventral protiuberance;
brownish-ochreous |
. |
| . |  |
South Africa - transversinodis |
Rhoptromyrmex species 48From Ghana on cocoa mistletoe (Room, 1975). A single worker listed as Rhoptromyrmex species 48, was collected from the ground at CRIG by Bigger (1981a). |
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MYRMICINAE Introduction |
© 2007, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2018 - Brian Taylor CBiol FRSB FRES 11, Grazingfield, Wilford, Nottingham, NG11 7FN, U.K. |
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