Plectroctena minor Emery

Wheeler, W. M., 1922, The ants collected by the American Museum Congo Expedition., Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 45, pp. 39-269 : 88

Plectroctena minor Emery

A single apterous female from Akenge from the stomach of a toad (Bufo polycercus); a single worker from Niapu from the stomach of a frog (Xenopus tropicalis); Stanleyville, [[worker]], [[queen]], [[male]] (Lang and Chapin).

Female (apterous).- Length about 12 mm.

Smaller than the winged female and with slightly smaller eyes. Ocelli present. The thorax of the same shape as in the winged female but without wing insertions. The tint of the body is a little more reddish than in the winged female.

Male (hitherto undescribed).-

Head broader than long, broadly rounded behind, the eyes large, moderately convex, about half as long as the sides of the head. Mandibles very small, blunt, edentate. Clypeus rather convex, with feebly and broadly excised anterior border. Antennae long, filiform; scape about two-thirds as long as the second funicular joint, first funicular joint broader than long. Thorax broader through the wing insertions than the head, narrowed in front; premesonotal suture very deeply impressed. Mesonotum rather flat, with a median pit in front and well-developed Mayrian furrows. Scutellum convex, with a median sulcus so that it appears bituberculata. Base of epinotum somewhat longer than the declivity which is concave and strongly marginate on the sides and above. Petiole narrower, higher than long, the node truncated anteriorly and posteriorly and rounded above and on the sides; its ventral tooth triangular, short and rather acute. Postpetiole broader than long, convex above and sharply constricted off from the gaster, its anterior ventral border projecting as a transverse welt. Gaster of the usual shape, pygidium bluntly pointed at the tip. Legs moderately long and slender. Wings rather short (7.8 mm.).

Shining, finely punctate; thorax more or less rugulose, the pronotum finely, the pleurae more coarsely, the scutellum and upper portion of the base of the epinotum reticulately rugose, the latter very coarsely. Upper portion of petiolar node very smooth and shining.

Hairs yellowish, present only along the posterior borders of the gastric segments. Pubescence grayish, very fine, covering the gaster, head, and legs.

Black; mouth, mandibles, tibial spurs, and articulations of the legs, ventral portion of petiole, posterior and especially lateral, margins of the gastric segments, red. Wings uniformly brownish, veins and pterostigma dark brown.

The series from Stanleyville consists of a single worker, three females, and two males, all from the same colony. Another male from the same locality and with a different number is considerably larger (13 mm.) and evidently belongs to the same species but probably represents a distinct variety which cannot be named without the worker or female.