Myrmicaria eumenoides subspecies opaciventris variety congolensis (Forel)

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 : 146

Myrmicaria eumenoides subspecies opaciventris variety congolensis (Forel)

This form is not represented among the material collected by Lang, Chapin, and Bequaert. Santschi regards it as an independent subspecies, but it seems to me to be merely a variety of opaciventris . Three cotypes of congolensis were given me by Forel. Comparison of these specimens, which were taken from the stomach of a scaly ant-eater (Manis temmincki) captured by Solon in the Lower Congo, with opaciventris show relatively slight differences. They are somewhat smaller, of a more sordid yellowish brown color (possibly due to the action of the gastric juices of the Manis), and with much the same sculpture and lower portion of the postpetiole. The epinotal spines, however, are decidedly more slender and more strongly deflected, a character not mentioned in Forel's original description, though noted by Santschi; the head is proportionally smaller and narrower, with straight cheeks, and the gaster is opaque only at the base of the first segment, the remainder being rather shining.