Anochetus africanus Mayr
 Type
location Ghana (Stenomyrmex africanus, Mayr, 1865:
11, footnote, worker; André 1892a: 47, queen, from Gabon);
junior synonyms camerunensis (Mayr, 1896: 236, worker &
male) from Cameroun, collected by Y. Sjöstedt; and
pasteuri (Santschi, 1923e: 265, worker & queen; Brown,
1978c: 556) from Zaïre; all forms described (Bolton,
1995)  .
Mayr's (1865) description is at
 .
André's (1892a) description of the queen is at
 .
Mayr's (1896) description of camerunensis is at
 .
Santschi's (1923e) description of pasteuri is at
 .
Brown's (1978c: 556) description is at
 .
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Nigeria
specimens (Taylor, 1976: 13). WORKER. TL 5.7 mm, HL 1.24, HW 1.24,
SL 1.24 and PW 0.68
Dorsum of head
finely striate. Alitrunk striate, coarser on propodeum, and meso-
and metanotal grooves both distinct. Apex of the petiolar node is
emarginate with two blunt teeth. Eyes moderately large, length
0.19 mm. Overall colour castaneous, but legs yellow, shiny.
I collected it from soil and debris aggregations in crevices of mature cocoa trees at the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria, Idi Ayunre; also from
a rotten log (B. Bolton).
Wheeler (1922) listed findings from Ghana at Aburi (F.
Silvestri); Cameroun at Mundame (Conradt), Victoria (F.
Silvestri), Bibundi (Tessmann) and Molundu (Schultze); plus
elsewhere in Congo eastwards.
From Guinea, Bernard (1952) recorded - 2 yellowish
workers from Station B 8.24, Nimba; 6 workers with black cheeks,
N'Zo; 4 dark brown workers, Camp IV, forest, 1000 m. He noted that
this is the most common and most variable of the species, found in
¾ of the continent, plus Madagascar.
Brown (1978c) described it as oft-collected and reported it as
ranging throughout the forested regions of West and Central Africa
as far south as northern Angola, southern Zaïre; eastwards to
Uganda and southern Sudan; and north-west to Liberia, at
Gibi (W.M. Mann). He described finding it foraging only at night
in the Ivory Coast (Brown, 1976).
Similar Ghana findings in cocoa and Lantana scrub
at the Mampong Cemetery farm (Room, 1971). Also from cocoa
mistletoe (Room, 1975). Two workers were collected by pkd at Kade
by Majer (1975, 1976b); and it occurred in leaf litter samples
(176 workers, from six sampling sites) at cocoa farms, primary and
secondary forest scattered throughout the semi-deciduous forest
zone, by Belshaw & Bolton (1994b).
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The photomontage is of a specimen from the Zimbabwe National
Museum -