Polyrhachis bequaerti Wheeler
  Type location Zaļre
(Polyrhachis
bequaerti, Wheeler, 1922: 267, illustrated,
worker; Santschi, 1923e: 294, queen) from Kinshasa, J
Bequaert - see below; here revived from synonymy under Polyrhachis fissa by Bolton (1973b: 304)
 .
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 Wheeler's (1922)
description is at  . Santschi (1923e: 294)
described the queen of bequaerti as similar to the worker, TL
6.5 mm. Bolton's modern description
under fissa (1973b) is at 
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Wheeler (1922) listed other findings from Cameroun (at
Bibundi by Tessmann, at Mundame by Conradt) and Rio Muni. He described bequaerti
as a new species, with an illustration, noting that the nest consisted
of two leaves united by a soft tissue comprised of fibrous, gnawed
vegetable particles and silk (Bolton examined the type and Wheeler's
specimens and found no differences).
Note (April 2015): The
type images suggest that Polyrhachis
bequaerti merits raising to separate species status.
Bolton's (1973b) note of fissa
as being distinguished by "deeply incised and distinct striations on
the propodeum" applies to bequaerti
and the type fissa has only
weakly sculpturation on the propodeum or on the pronotum. P. fissa also has quite abundant
erect hairs over the whole alitrunk dorsum and sparse but obvious erect
hairs on the gaster dorsum. P.
bequaerti
has few, very fine, erect hairs on the pronotum dorsum and almost none
on the gaster. The small notch adjacent to the outer insertion of
the antennae that Bolton described as separating lauta from P. fissa is small but readily seen
in P. bequaerti.
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 The photomontage of the paratype is collated from The
Smithsonian Institute images at http://ripley.si.edu/ent/nmnhtypedb/public/specimeninfopage.cfm?publicconsumption=1&typespecimenID=1545.
See also http://www.antweb.org/specimenImages.do?code=rmcaent000017822
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Oxford University Museum
specimens
Polyrhachis lauta
B Taylor det. |
Ivory Coast
Erena Dupont
28.i.2014
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Taļ National Park
5˚45'00" N
7˚07'00" W
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YSBCI 2015-31-5-2014
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3
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 |
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 The
photomontage is of a worker from Ivory Coast, Tai; collector Erena Dupont, 28.i.2014.
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