The Ants of Africa
Genus Aenictus
Aenictus asantei Campione, Novak & Gotwald

Aenictus asantei Campione, Novak & Gotwald

return to key {link to the Hymenoptera Name Server} Type location Ghana (Aenictus asantei n. sp., Campione, Novak & Gotwald, 1983: 873, illustrated, workers and queens) Legon (no images on Antweb, September 2014) .


{Aenictus asantei}Campione, Novak & Gotwald's (1983) description is at {original description}.

Recognisable by the large size; presence of denticles on the anterior margin of the clypeus and rugous sculpturation of the posterior two-thirds of the alitrunk.
WORKER - TL 3.47-3.89 mm HL 0,63-0.77 HW 0.63-0.72 AL 1.10-1.26
Head glossy, with puncturation, parafrontal ridges (around antennal insertions) well developed anteriorly terminating in a minute spine, frontal carinae expanded anteriorly to form thin flanges; clypeus with distinct toothed anterior border. Mandible flattened, linear, striated, with sharp apical tooth, subapical teeth absent. Alitrunk without distinct sutures. Pronotum glossy except for densely punctate anterior dorsal slope. Posterior two-thirds of alitrunk sub-opaque with well-developed longitudinal rugae. Propodeum with transition from dorsum to declivity with a sharp ridge extending laterally and bordering declivity, face of declivity densely punctate. Subpetiolar process triangular with rounded apex, usually directed ventrally or posteriorly. Gaster glossy without obvious puncturation. Colour most of body dark reddish-brown to reddish-orange, appendages lighter; pilosity moderately abundant, with erect to suberect hairs.
From cultivated land at Legon, University of Ghana farm, in coastal scrub savannah.


{Aenictus asantei}

Nigeria specimens (as Aenictus rotundatus Taylor, 1980b: 5). WORKER. TL 2.86 mm, HL 0.62, HW 0.50, SL 0.42, PW 0.34
Colour orange-brown, shiny, polished appearance. Sculpturation limited to rugopuncturation on the lateral mesonotum, propodeum and lateral area of the pedicel. Erect hairs long, fine and moderately abundant. Head in front view with convex sides rounding into a slightly convex occipital margin. Anterior margin of clypeus minutely denticulate. Mandibles with a slightly elongated triangular apex, a moderate preapical tooth and rest of inner margin denticulate. Propodeum with a pronounced margin, declivity concave in profile. Subpetiolar process elongated and flattened with an anterior triangular apex; subpostpetiolar process similar but shorter.
Collected by me from leaf litter and foraging in single file up a cocoa tree at the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria, Idi Ayunre. Eguagie (1971) found it also at Araromi near Ibadan.

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© 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014 - Brian Taylor CBiol FSB FRES
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