Crematogaster (Atopogyne) laurenti Forel
  Type location Zaïre (Cremastogaster
africana Mayr, subsp. Laurenti n. subsp, Forel, 1909b: 69,
worker) from Bokala, by Laurent - see below
subspecies zeta (Cremastogaster
africana Mayr, subsp. Laurenti Forel var. Zeta n. var., Forel, 1909b:
70; Emery, 1922e: 155, worker) from Zaïre - (identical) - see http://www.antweb.org/specimenImages.do?name=casent0908631
worker only
described (see Bolton, 1995)  .
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Forel's (1909b) description of laurenti is at  .
My translation is - TL 1.8-2.6 mm; smaller and contrasting with the
type - of africana - in being smaller and having very light
sculpturation. Whole body shiny black. Thorax and head partly and
feebly rugose or reticulate. Propodeum spines narrower and shorter;
petiole node trapezoidal. Congo samples 107, 109, 110, 117 from Bokula,
Isangani and Kisangani [Stanleyville] in hollow twigs of Plectroctonia
laurenti and Cuviera angolensis.
Forel (1909b) also described zeta, separating it
from laurenti
by having the funiculi brown, whereas the apical half was yellow in the
type; the propodeal spines also were a little longer. The specimens
were from a hollow twig of an unnamed plant.
Wheeler (1922) also listed it from Nigeria (at
Oni
Camp, east of Lagos, by Lamborn). Bequaert (1922, p 467) described how
the tree Randia physophylla, does not have swollen or even
hollow stems but does have expanded, or inflated leafbases and, near
Leopoldville, he found some of these expansions to be pouch-like with a
gland secreting a sweet substance. On some leaves specimens of Crem.
laurenti (as an ssp of Crem. africana and as variety zeta)
had taken possession of these distended nectaria, closing the opening
with fibrous carton and often enclosing coccids; he noted also that
they build tents over coccids on fruit. The main host plant, however,
seems likely to be Plectronia laurentii, although it also was
found in a Cuviera plant (Bequaert, 1922, p 473 & 492).
Santschi (1935) noted a specimen from Kondue, Zaïre,
collected
by Luja.
Bernard (1952) thought that a single queen, from scrub
at Nion
crest, 1300 m, was of this "common western species".
The habitat and size indicate this is not an Atopogyne but a member of subgenus Crematogaster.
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The
photomontage of the type worker is collated from