Calyptomyrmex foreli Emery

Type location Eritrea (Dicroaspis emeryi, Forel 1910c: 262, worker; Santschi 1913c: 311, queen; type location Ethiopia in Bolton, 1981a); replacement name foreli (Emery 1915g: 15); junior synonyms hartwigi (Arnold, 1948: 220, worker & male) from South Africa, and pusillus from Gabon (Santschi, 1915c: 256, worker); all forms described (see Bolton, 1981a: 67; Bolton, 1995) .

Forel's (1910c) description is at . Santschi's (1913c) description of the queen (from Harrar, Ethiopia, collected by Reichensperger, is at . Arnold's (1948) description of hartwigi (as ssp of arnoldi) is at . Bolton's modern description (1987) is at

WORKER - TL 2.3-3.0 mm; diagnostic character is presence of the roughly triangular area of the vertex with transverse rugae (Bolton, 1981a, illustrated).

Bolton (1981a) found the distribution pattern - Gabon, Ethiopia and South Africa "disturbing". I agree and really wonder if the species is "widely distributed but rare" or if Bolton's synonymy is incorrect, with pusillus as a species in its own right (it was listed as such by Wheeler, 1922).

Santschi's (1915c) description of pusillus is -
TL 1.9-2. Head distinctly longer than wide; posterior border slightly convex and with rounded angles. Eyes convex, with 15-17 facets; set in the posterior third of the inferior border of the scrobe. Frontal area an elongated shiny triangle. Clypeus with a scalloped anterior edge with lateral teeth. Frontal carinae scalloped in their posterior half - allowing the eye to be seen from above when the antenna is extended out of the scrobe. The scrobe is wide and prolonged notably by the closed mandibles and the lobe of the clypeus. Mandibles smooth with 5-6 teeth. Scape dilated in the distal one-third; first segment of the funiculus slender and as long as the four succeeding segments together. Pronotum with right-angled shoulder; anterior border somewhat convex, lateral edges converging posteriorly but ill-defined. Promesonotal suture ill-defined but indicated on the sides by a small notch. Mesonotum strongly bordered and dropping a little before the propodeal dorsum; latter feebly convex, longer than the declivity, with the angles marked by a small indistinct tubercle. Pedicel nodes subequal seen from above, postpetiole a little wider and longer, both twice as wide as long. In profile the petiole node is as high as it is long; postpetiole node is slightly lower, equally rounded above and with a ventral tooth. Gaster truncated anteriorly.
Chestnut brown; occiput, propodeum and gaster brown black; appendages testaceous red. Matt; posterior and lateral gaster shiny; slightly less grossly striate than foreli (emeryi). Striations longitudinal on the front of the head and transverse posteriorly; and indifferently oblique on the pronotum; intervals with tiny moderately deep and shiny punctures. Propodeum, sides of thorax and pedicel with strong, dense and regular puncturation. Ventral and basal gaster finely reticulo-punctate. Pilosity claviform and yellowish, quite uniform, save on the head and femora where they are shorter and on the gaster and thorax where they are less spaced; on the thorax the hairs are in 5 transverse ranges. Seven to nine short silky, subclavate hairs fringe the edge of the scrobe and the last two gastral segments; also a little pubescence.
A single specimen came from Gabon, collected by F. Faure.