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The Ants of
Africa SUBFAMILY MYRMICINAE - Genus Cardiocondyla |
Contents - Myrmicinae - MYRMICINAE Introduction |
In Tribe FORMICOXENINI.
Diagnostic Features - Eyes well developed and sited forward of the front of the midlength of the head. Antennae 12-segmented, with a three-segmented club, and the scapes short, failing to reach the posterior margin of the head. The lateral portions of the clypeus project forwards over the basal margins of the mandibles. Sculpture usually of fine dense puncturation on the head and alitrunk, but none on the gaster. Sparse pubescence but erect setae only on the anterior clypeal margin. Alitrunk with the promesonotal suture absent and the metanotal groove impressed. Propodeum with a pair of teeth or spines. Petiole with a long peduncle in front; in dorsal view the post-petiole is very broad. Middle and hind tibiae without spurs.
Emery's (1869b) genus description is at . Arnold (1916) gave a genus description,
this is at
.
Revised by Bolton (1982). All small to minute ants which nest in
soil, usually at the bases of trees, or in compressed leaf litter.
Belshaw & Bolton (1994) noted that three species are known from
Ghana. The full text of Bolton's revision can be seen at -
Bolton,
B. 1982. Afrotropical species of the myrmicine ant genera Cardiocondyla,
Leptothorax, Melissotarsus, Messor and Cataulacus
(Formicidae). Bull.
Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.) Entomol. 45:
307-370. View or download entire file (7.6M) .
Rigato (2002) described three new species from sub-Saharan Africa. Two, longinoda and luciae were from Tanzania and one, yorubae, came from Nigeria. The latter however, seems to differ little from emery. Moreover, it exactly matches the specimen I drew from Nigeria and collected at some time by Barry Bolton. Rigato, who was supplied with the specimens he described by Bolton, makes no mention of sighting either emery from any other source. I, therefore, tentatively regard yorubae as a junior synonym of emeryi.
In contrast to Rigato, Seifert (2003) made an extremely detailed and sophisticated study of primarily Holarctic Cardiocondyla. Although published later, this study surely, at least, overlaps that by Rigato. Seifert included all but two of the species in Bolton (1982) and transferred globinodis and badonei from wroughtoni to venustula. The latter thus was added to the list from sub-Saharan Africa, as is C. mauritanica (a Zimbabwe record)
Key to species known from Africa (derived from Bolton, 1982, and revised to incorporate Rigato, 2002):
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Nigeria - zoserka |
1 | ![]() |
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Angola - monardi |
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2 |
2 | ![]() |
Sudan - as a junior synonym of fajumensis - nilotica |
-- | Scapes not exceeding occipital margin | 3 |
3 | ![]() |
Ghana - sekhemka |
-- | Dorsal surfaces of head, alitrunk or both finely and densely sculptured | 4 |
4 | Dorsum of gaster distinctly finely shagreened, not smoother than head or alitrunk | 5 |
-- | Dorsum of gaster not shagreened, smoother than head or alitrunk | 6 |
5 | ![]() |
. |
. | ![]() |
Tanzania - longinoda |
-- | ![]() |
. |
. | ![]() |
Tanzania - luciae |
6 | ![]() |
Pan-African - shuckardi |
-- | Propodeum in profile strongly bidentate to bispinose; scapes relatively short | 7 |
7 | ![]() |
Cameroun - weserka |
-- | Alitrunk dorsum convex behind metanotal groove, then sloping down to spines | 8 |
8 | ![]() |
Pantropical tramp - wroughtonii |
In profile alitrunk with even curve into metanotal groove | 9 | |
9 | ![]() |
West Africa - neferka |
-- | ![]() |
Pantropical tramp - emeryi (yorubae) |
Key following Seifert (2003); with addition of wasmanni, 2009
CL - HL on median line; CS = median of CW+CL; FRS = distance of frontal carinae immediately caudal of the posterior intersection points betwwen the frontal cariane and the dorsal lamellae of the torus; PPH = maximum postpetiole height; mesosoma used rather than alitrunk. The scale on his illustrations of the main worker is 213 µm. I find that for a field worker or, indeed, anyone without very high quality equipment, his key as it stands is not easy too use. |
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2 |
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5 |
2 | Head short CL/HW < 1.19 | 3 |
-- | Head longer, frons narrower | 4 |
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cosmopolitan tramp; Tanzania & Somalia - wroughtonii |
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cosmopolitan tramp but the single Kenya record (worker, Kaijado, x.1999) may be an error - obscurior |
4 | ![]() |
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Cameroun - weserka |
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. | ![]() |
West Africa - neferka |
5 | ![]() |
widespread tramp - emeryi |
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emeryi |
-- | FRS/PPH > 0.722 | 6 |
6 | Propodeal spines in lateral view with blunt angles of 95-120°; sides of postpetiole in dorsal view always rounded convex; promesonotal and anterior propodeal profiles forming shallowly convex curvatures to give a wide metanotal depression | shuckardi-group - 7 |
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Zimbabwe (once; gyne only, vii.1995) - nuda-group - mauritanica |
7 | ![]() |
southern East Africa - shuckardi |
7a | ![]() |
West Africa and Congo Basin East Africa - wassmanni |
-- | Scape longer SL/CS 0.81-0.87; postpetiole narrower; metanotal depression deeper | 8 |
8 | ![]() |
south-eastern Africa - venustula |
-- | ![]() |
Sudan (as nilotica) - fajumensis |
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MYRMICINAE Introduction |
© 2007, 2009, 2013, 2014, 2019 - Brian Taylor CBiol FRSB FRES 11, Grazingfield, Wilford, Nottingham, NG11 7FN, U.K. |
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