Anochetus africanus

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 : 602-603

publication ID

6757

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6284147

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/83A6231F-64C4-EB98-AED0-CDF9B1A5695E

treatment provided by

Donat

scientific name

Anochetus africanus
status

 

[29] Anochetus africanus View in CoL View at ENA   HNS

The group of A. africanus   HNS includes fairly large-sized (worker HL + ML 2.15-2.60 mm) species with frontal striation fine, straight, regular, and reaching to or very nearly to the nuchal carina; eyes fairly large (EL 0.18-0.28 mm), but usually not as big relatively as in bequaerti   HNS , pellucidus   HNS , or sedilloti   HNS (for examples); gastric dorsum completely smooth and shining, with only scattered piligerous punctures, thus excluding the closely related bequaerti   HNS complex. Second funicular segment shorter than third, not very much longer than broad (L <2W).

I include in the africanus   HNS group 4 nominal species (with their synonyms): africanus   HNS , obscuratus   HNS , madagascarensis   HNS and naialensis. In general, africanus   HNS has the pronotum densely sculptured and opaque to weakly shining, natalensis   HNS has the pronotum strongly shining, but with faint discal striato-punctulation, and obscuratus   HNS and madagascarensis   HNS have the pronotum smooth and shining, with only fine, scattered punctures. The oft-collected A. africanus   HNS appears to range throughout the forested regions of West and Central Africa as far south as northern Angola (gallery forest of R. Kahingo, 7.39 S, 20.51 E, Mwaoka) and the Kasai River area of southern Zaire; east into Uganda (Mabira Forest, G. Anold) and the Imatong Mts. of southernmost Sudan (N. A. Weber); and northwest to Liberia (Gibi, W. M. Mann) at least. The pronotum is covered with sculpture, ranging from wavy-costulate to striate-punctulate in an inverted U- or V-shaped or oval pattern; in some samples (e.g., Cameroun and 12 miles of Kasaji, Zaire, E. S. Ross and R. E. Leech) the pronotal sculpture is weak, and the surface is shining and much more nearly smooth than usual.

The more lightly-sculptured East African counterpart, A. obscuratus   HNS , is poorly known, and is only barely distinguishable from the island isolate, A. madagascarensis   HNS . These two may in fact be only slight geographical variants of one species. A. obscuratus   HNS has the posterior truncal dorsum even less strongly sculptured (more strongly shining) than in the 8 Malagasy locality samples now available, though direct comparison is needed to appreciate the distinction. A. obscuratus   HNS samples are also much less uniform; var. ustus   HNS has the posterior trunk almost completely smooth and shining, an extreme of the trend in obscuratus   HNS . The samples of A. obscuratus   HNS I have seen are the type of schoutedeni   HNS from Dumbi, Kasai district, Zaire; the type worker of ustus   HNS , from Makumbi in the same district; the types of A. obscuratus   HNS , from Kiboschi, Kilimanjaro, Tanganyka; and a series of 6 workers and alate queens from 11 miles S. Maktau, Teita Prov., Kenya, E. S. Ross and R. E. Leech. A worker chosen at random from the last sample has HL + ML = 2.55 mm, while the eye is 0.26 mm long.

A. natalensis   HNS is based on the type series, from Pietermaritzburg, Natal, and I know of no other samples. It is intermediate in sculpture between the more lightly-sculptured africanus   HNS mentioned above (Kasaji, Cameroun) and obscuratus   HNS , b,ut the eyes are a little larger than in either relative: EL 0.28 mm in a worker in which HL + ML = 2.25. The petiolar node is a bit sharper at the summit in side view than in most africanus   HNS samples. This species may just be a slightly extreme variant of africanus   HNS or obscuratus   HNS , or it may really represent an extralimita!, independent species. We need more material of the complex, especially from Rhodesia, Zambia and Mozambique, in order to understand what natalensis   HNS is.

The relationship between africanus   HNS and obscuratus   HNS is still open to question, although it does appear that the two remain reasonably distinct in areas (such as southern Zaire and Uganda) where they may be sympatric or nearly so. Otherwise, we could be dealing with conspecific forest and savanna ecotypes that intergrade sharply in ecotonal districts, a possible interpretation also of the inermis   HNS complex [40].

The types of A. pasteuri   HNS are large examples of africanus   HNS , the worker with eyes no larger (EL 0.25) than in members of the latter species of the same size (EL 0.25-0.26). The other characters cited by Santschi in his comparison with africanus   HNS are all ones of slight degree and variable in the africanus   HNS material available.

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Hymenoptera

Family

Formicidae

Genus

Anochetus

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