Aenictus asantei Campione, Novak & Gotwald
Type location Ghana
(Aenictus asantei n. sp.,
Campione, Novak & Gotwald, 1983: 873, illustrated, workers and
queens) Legon (no images on Antweb, September 2014) .
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Campione,
Novak & Gotwald's (1983) description is at .
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.
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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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