Platythyrea occidentalis André

Type location Sierra Leone (Platythyrea occidentalis n. sp., André, 1890: 315, queen; André, 1895a: 3, male; worker by Arnold, 1954: 291, illustrated, worker) location not given, collected by Mocquerys - see the type dealate queen at http://www.antweb.org/specimenImages.do?code=casent0913731
all forms described (see Bolton, 1995) .

André's (1890) description of the queen is at . André's (1895a) description of the male is at . Wheeler (1922) listed it also from Congo. Arnold (1954) gave an illustration and his description of the worker (from Uganda) is at .

Brown (1975: 46) noted that specimens collected at Tafo, Ghana, by D Leston, were reddish brown in colour, HL 1.40, with the eyes no wider than 0.14 whereas the scape width was 0.23 mm. The very long second funiculus segment is diagnostic; together with a deep subrectangular excision at the top of the propodeal declivity. He claimed the type specimen from Sierra Leone was a dealate queen and ferruginous in colour, with the characteristic three petiolar teeth.

Oxford University Museum specimens

Platythyrea occidentalis B Taylor det.

Liberia E Poirier Liabala PF 6

2.iv.2013 Nimba County 07°31’06" N 08°35’34" E

Pitfall trap Secondary forest 473 m asl

1

The photomontage is of a worker from Liberia, Liabala; collector E Poiriet (Liabala PF 6).

TL ca 9 mm HW 1.3 HL 1.8 SL 1.5 PW 1.15 EL 0.2

The photomontage of a worker labelled as an allotype is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimenImages.do?name=sam-ent-0011507

While this clearly is the worker described by Arnold (1954), note he gave the colour as "black", with the appendages brownish red, it differs in several ways from the fresh worker shown above.

TL ca 7.6 mm (Arnold 7.0 mm) HW 1.35 HL 1.6 SL 1.1 PW 09.5 EL 0.2.  Head relatively shorter and with weakly convex sides; petiole also with more convex sides in dorsal view but flat-tooped rather than shallowly domed.  With more specimens it seems likely that Arnold described the worker of a distinct species separate from occidentalis.

The photomontage is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0005923 (as Platythyrea indet.)
Collection details - Locality: Zaire; Epulu; 01°23'00"N 028°35'00"E, 750m. Collection Information: Collection codes: ANTC1035. Date: Nov 1995. Collected by: S.D. Torti. Method: EC19 sifted litter. Habitat: rainforest.