Tetramorium minimum (Bolton)

Type location Ghana (Triglyphothrix minima, Bolton, 1976: 330, not illustrated, worker; Bolton, 1995, including re-spelling). .

Holotype worker and two paratype workers from a termite nest at Kumasi in Ghana (B. Bolton, 15.i.1969) . Otherwise collected from leaf litter in the semi-deciduous forest zone, where it was widespread (368 workers from 15 sites), by Belshaw & Bolton (1994b). Probably the Triglyphothrix sp. G of Room (1971), from cocoa leaf litter at Mampong Cemetery farm (finding listed by Bolton, 1976). From Nigeria he listed a single finding of one worker at IITA (B. Critchley, vii.1974). Three series of workers from Ivory Coast, at Abidjan, Banco Forest (W.L. Brown, i.1963) appeared to be less sculptured variants (Bolton, 1976).

Bolton's description (1976) is at .

Nigeria specimen (as Triglyphothrix species Tą, Taylor 1980a: 61) WORKER. TL 1.77 mm, HL 0.44, HW 0.40, SL 0.31, PW 0.30 (TL 1.7-2.0 in Bolton, 1976). Others: TL 1.7-2.0 mm (Bolton, 1976, not illustrated)
Colour dark brown near black, legs and antennae yellow. Head, alitrunk and pedicel coarsely but faintly rugoreticulate. Erect hairs relatively sparse, mostly bifid, but simple on the gaster. Antennal scrobes well defined. Propodeal spines short, upturned and triangular; metapleural lobes not distinct. Petiole with distinct anterior and posterior faces, a short peduncle, dorsal face convex with a distinct medial crest. Moderate triangular subpetiolar tooth.
I found it at the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria, Idi Ayunre, on the ground and lower parts of a cocoa tree, possibly tending Homoptera.

The photomontage of the holotype worker is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0901150.

Oxford University Museum specimens

Tetramorium minimum B Taylor det.	Cameroun A Fotso Kuate Tetramorium spK	17.vii.2007 Awae II 03°54'30" N 11°25'58"	Quadrat in mixed crop field	1
Tetramorium minimum B Taylor det.	Cameroun A Fotso Kuate Tetramorium spK	21.xi.2007 Awae II 03°54'30" N 11°25'58"	Quadrat in mixed crop field	1
Tetramorium minimum B Taylor det.	Congo Y Braet t-1-5	19.viii.2007 Brazzaville 4° 15' 33" S 15° 17' 5" E	24h pitfall trap; forest around the GERDIB laboratories; 317 m asl	1
Tetramorium minimum B Taylor det.	Congo Y Braet t-1-6	19.viii.2007 Brazzaville 4° 15' 33" S 15° 17' 5" E	24h pitfall trap; forest around the GERDIB laboratories; 317 m asl	2

The photomontage is of a worker from Congo, Brazzaville; collectors Yves Braet & Eric Zassi samples t 1.5 & t 1.6). 

The photomontage is of a worker from Cameroun; Awae II; collector A Fotso Kuate (fk tetramorium sp K).;