Anochetus sedilloti

Brown, WL Jr.,, 1978, Contributions toward a reclassification of the Formicidae. Part VI. Ponerinae, tribe Ponerini, subtribe Odontomachiti. Section B. Genus Anochetus and bibliography., Studia Entomologica 20, pp. 549-638 : 594

[21] A. sedilloti

and A. levaillanti are closely related species with thick petiolar nodes, rounded at the summit. The former has long been thought of as a Tunisian ant with a variety (indiens) in peninsular India, while A. levaillanti has been known from southern Africa and from Eritrea (Emery 1911: 109; Finzi 1939: 154). A. sedilloti is, however, widespread in Africa, as indicated by worker samples I have seen from Legon, Ghana (D. Leston) and Khor, near Umm Dorein, Sudan (C. Sweeny), as well as a dealate queen from Ailet, Eritrea (G. Müller) from the collection of Bruno Finzi, undoubtedly the same sample identified by Finzi (loc. cit.) as A. levaillanti . Santschi (1923: 267) recorded sedilloti from Senegal, Chad, and Timbuktu.

In India, A. sedilloti is known from all along the western side of the Peninsula, from Gujerat so,uth at least through the Nilgiri Hills ( Forel 1900: 62). Although Forel distinguished the Indian populations as var. indicus , the differences cited were admittedly feeble, and I am unable to find any of them that seem constant in the worker material now available. The differences in the length of the first 2 antennomeres of the male cited by Forel (1907 d: 201) are detectable best in the second segment (pedicel), but even here are trivial in direct comparison, especially when one notes that only a single nest sample is involved from each region. There are no obvious differences between these male samples in the form of the complicated terminalia, at least as seen partly extended and undissected. On the basis of the evidence at present available, I see no reason to make a nomenclatorial distinction of the African and Indian populations, and I think it entirely possible that intervening relict populations of A. sedilloti will eventually be found in Yemen and perhaps elsewhere in SW Asia.

The extension of the range of A. sedilloti to Eritrea indicates a likely area of sympatry there with A. levaillanti . So far, the differences between these species in cephalic and pronotal sculpture (given in the key) appear to hold well, but the distinction in gastric sculpture may be weaker; samples from Ladismith, Natal, H. Brauns, have the fine sculpture between the punctures of the first gastric segment weakly developed and in part feebly shining.