Crematogaster (Atopogyne) theta Forel
Type location Zaïre (Crematogaster
africana Mayr var. theta n.var., Forel, 1911f: 278, worker;
Crematogaster buchneri For. r. laurenti For.
v. theta
For., Forel, 1916: 410, queen; raised to species by Wheeler, 1922: 857)
collected at Kondué by Luja
Worker and queen described (see Bolton,
1995) .
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Forel (1911f), describing it as a new variety of africana,
had - TL 3.4-3.7; close to Crematogaster
laurenti Forel and [its ssp] zeta but larger and less
shiny. Propodeal spines longer, more slender and less divergent.
Otherwise less matt than typical africana and petiole node
larger; head fairly shiny . Forel's (1916) description of the queen
is at .
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Wheeler
(1922) drawing on a letter from Santschi, had - "this form represents
the extreme limits of the subgenus Atopogyne. The worker has a
feeble groove on the postpetiole and the promesonotal impression
[suture] is feeble. Moreover the female is brown [the worker was
described as entirely black], smooth, and shining with spined epinotum
[propodeum], very different from the female of C. africana
(Mayr) and the variety zeta (Forel)." According to Mr Lang, who
collected it at Medje, Avakubi and Stanleyville, the nests, as
illustrated (left and "click") were typically not more than about two
feet (60 cm) in height and about a foot (30 cm) in diameter.
Santschi (1935) noted specimens from Dingila and Tuku,
Zaïre,
collected by H.-J. Brédo, 30.vi-1923; and R.P. Van der Plas, 15.ii.1919.
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