Tetramorium rugosum new species

Type location Congo .

WORKER DESCRIPTION: antennae 11-segmented; sculpturation primarily rugose on the head and alitrunk; the pedicel is coarsely rugoreticulate; antennal scrobes distinct; propodeal teeth well developed, with a slight apical downturn; no marked metapleural lobes; petiole with distinct near vertical anterior and posterior faces, the dorsum only slightly convex; a short, blunt subpetiolar tooth; postpetiole convex in profile; hairs moderately long and fairly abundant; colour dark red-brown, with lighter appendages.

TL 2.80 mm, HL 0.70, HW 0.70, CI 100, SL 0.47, SI 67, PW 0.50

Within the blanket description of Tetramorium angulinode but readily separable by the coarseness of the head and alitrunk sculpturation; also the weak sculpturation of the postpetiole, which is not cubic.

Name derived from the pronounced rugosity on the dorsal alitrunk.

Specimens deposited with the Natural History Museum, London (Nigeria material) and the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

Oxford University Museum specimens

Tetramorium rugosum B Taylor det.

Congo Y Braet Congo t 1.3

19.viii.2007 Brazzaville 4°15'33" S 15°17'5" E

24 h pitfall trap

1

The photomontage is of a specimen from Congo, Brazzaville, Congo t 1.3; 19.viii.2007 24 h pitfall trap; collectors Yves Braet & Eric Zassi.

TL ca 2.8 mm, HL 0.62, HW 0.62, CI 100, SL 0.42, SI 42, PW 0.42, AL 0.65.

Nigeria specimens (described and illustrated as Xiphomyrmex species F, Taylor, 1980a: 63).
Found in open ground, with a nest in dead wood on the ground at the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria, Idi Ayunre. Not listed by Bolton (1980, although deposited with him by me in 1976).