Mesoponera subiridescens (Wheeler)
Type location Zaïre (Euponera
(Mesoponera) subiridescens, Wheeler, 1922: 83, illustrated,
worker; in Pachycondyla
Bolton, 1995: 310; new placement by Schmidt & Shattuck, 2014: 111),
collectors Lang and Chapin, all specimens taken from toad
stomachs, at Akenge (type), Medje and Ngayu Workers only described .
|
Description by Wheeler (1922) -
WORKER - TL 6.5-7.0 mm. Head longer than broad, as broad in front as
behind, with feebly and broadly excised posterior border and feebly
convex sides. Eyes rather large, feebly convex placed with their
posterior orbits just in front of the middle of the sides. Mandibles
very long, narrow, with feebly concave external borders, the apical
border very long toothless except at the tip where there are four
small, blunt, oblique teeth. Clypeus carinate, its anterior border
broadly projecting, sinuate on each side of the middle and also more
deeply at each mandibular insertion. Frontal carinae short, their upper
surfaces rather concave. Antennae slender, the scapes extending beyond
the posterior border of the head a distance nearly equal to twice their
greatest diameter; funicular joints 1 and 2 subequal, almost twice as
long as broad; joints 3 to 5 somewhat shorter; remaining joints, except
the last, little, if at all longer than broad. Pronotum rather convex
and rounded, as long as broad; mesonotum transverse, semicircular,
surrounded by an impressed suture. Metanotal groove distinct. Propodeum
as long as the pro- and mesonotum together, the base rounded and
convex, somewhat lower than the mesonotum, passing gradually into the
somewhat longer, sloping declivity, which is flat and bluntly marginate
on the sides. Petiolar scale shaped as in ingesta, but not so
thick, with the anterior surface more flattened and the posterior not
impressed in the middle. Gaster short and stout, convex above, the
postpetiole truncated in front, the constriction between it and the
succeeding segment very feeble. Legs moderately long.
Shining; mandibles more so than the remainder of the body, smooth, with
only, a few large punctures along the apical margin. Remainder of body
very finely but not deeply punctate and less densely than in ingesta.
Hairs lacking, except on the mandibles, clypeus, pygidium, and
hypopygium, where they are pale yellow and rather long; the pubescence,
too, is yellowish and rather long and abundant on the body and
appendages, longest on the gaster.
Deep castaneous, almost black; the head and thorax with a more or less
distinct blue iridescence as in some species of Leptogenys (as Lobopelta,
e.g iridescens and chinensis)), inner borders of
mandibles, the legs, antennae, and tip of gaster somewhat paler and
more reddish.
|