Polyrhachis (Myrma) alluaudi Emery variety anteplana 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 : 266

Polyrhachis (Myrma) alluaudi Emery variety anteplana Forel

Text Figures 73 and 74

A single worker taken from the stomach of a frog (Phrynobatrachus perpalmatus) captured at Stanleyville (Lang and Chapin).

This variety, originally described from the same locality, differs from the typical alluaudi by "the epinotum and its teeth being longer, the pronotum flatter. The transverse mesoepinotal fissure is vertical, very narrow and deep. The teeth of the epinotum are triangular, slightly curved forward; the spines of the pronotum are less than twice as long as their width at the base."

The worker and nest of the typical form were described and figured by Emery in 1892 from specimens taken by Alluaud in Assinie. I reproduce the figures (Figs. 73 and 74) because of the peculiar and interesting structure of the nest, which Emery describes in the following words: "The nest was found on a bush, 1.70 m. from the ground, attached to the lower surface of a leaf. It consists of a single low-vaulted chamber, with the entrance prolonged as a kind of chimney. Its walls are made of rather coarse vegetable particles loosely glued together."