Pachycondyla (Mesoponera) caffraria (F. Smith)

Type location South Africa (Ponera caffraria, F. Smith, 1858b: 91, queen; Forel, 1913a: 108, worker; Arnold, 1915: 65, worker & male); subspecies affinis (Santschi, 1935b: 258, worker) from Congo and caffra (Euponera caffra, Santschi, 1914d: 315 - name only; Santschi, 1935b: 259, worker) from Guinea, Kakoulima, collector F. Silvestri; junior synonym guineensis (André, 1890: 318, worker) from Sierra Leone, collector Mocquerys; all forms known (see Bolton, 1995) .

F Smith's (1858b) description is at . André's (1890) description of guineensis is at . Arnold's (1915: 65) illustrated translation and description of the worker is at and the male is at . Santschi's (1935b) description of affinis and other notes is at .

Nigeria specimens (as Mesoponera species T¹, Taylor, 1976: 25). WORKER. TL 7.6 mm, HL 1.93, HW 1.74, SL 1.40, PW 1.18
Dense pilosity but less on head. Mandibles large triangular, with more than eight teeth. Clypeus longitudinally carinate. Metanotal groove present and impressed. A distinct groove on the lateral mesonotum. Propodeum compressed above, considerably narrower in dorsal view than the pronotum, posterior face concave. Petiole a thick scale, subpetiolar process with a blunt apical tooth at the anterior corner. Colour nearly black, lighter on extremities.
I collected the specimens from a nest found in a rotting log on the ground. This appears to be a close match for the description given for guineensis by André (1890, see card).

Wheeler (1922) listed it also from Cameroun (at ?, H. Brauns) and widely across sub-Saharan Africa.

From Guinea, Bernard (1952) reported it as having small, epigeal colonies. Findings, all savanna, were - typical form - Kéoulenta D, 500 m, 9 workers, 1 queen; Ziéla (site B A3), 7 workers, ( site F) 1 worker. Variety guineensis (smaller, with larger head, and black) Kéoulenta, 2 workers; Sérengbara, 1 worker; site Fp, 4 workers. He noted that one of the Kéoulenta workers was abnormally large (with TL 7.6, HW 1.7) but that such types were not rare in Ponerines being fecund individuals, possibly replacements for the true queens.

Other sizes TL 8.5-9.5 mm, Ivory Coast specimens (Agbogba, 1984).

In Ghana, a single worker was collected (as Mesoponera caffraria) from the ground at CRIG by Bigger (1981a) and it was described as widespread in the semi-deciduous forest zone, from leaf litter sampling, 86 workers from 8 sites, by Belshaw & Bolton (1994b).

Agbogba, who made laboratory studies of foraging with ants originally from Ivory Coast (supplied by T. Diomande and M. Lepage), found that the foragers recruit and then run in tandem. He summarised it as a soil species, foraging in and on the soil savannah, but always in well-shaded areas, and never venturing onto vegetation (Agbogba, 1984). Lévieux & Diomande (1978) in their description of the activity of Pachycondyla sennaarensis, mention this species as found at Ferkéssédougou.

The photomontage is of a specimen from Ghana, collected by S Sky Stephens, 2005. Other images can be seen in the folder at -