Pachycondyla (Bothroponera) pachyderma Emery

Type location Cameroun (Emery, 1901a: 49, worker & queen) collected by Conradt; subspecies attenata (Santschi, 1920b: 7, worker; note spelt attenuata by Santschi, 1933b) and funerea (Wheeler, 1922: 73, queen, see below) from Zaïre, and postsquamosa from Congo (Santschi, 1920b: 7, worker); worker and queen described (see Bolton, 1995) .

Emery's (1901a) description is at . Santschi's (1920b) descriptions of attenata and postsquamosa are at .

WORKER - TL 12-15 mm; mandibles striate; antennal scapes not reaching to occiput; eyes small; petiolar node sharply truncated posteriorly; black or brownish black; golden pubescence less pronounced than in talpa; sculpture coarser.

Wheeler (1922) noted "all the specimens, both workers and females, have a blood-red, subtriangular spot at the middle of the posterior border of each gastric segment. I regard Santschi's B. sculpturata, described from a female, as synonymous with Emery's pachyderma". He added how the workers were found "under a log. When it was lifted the ants feigned death".

Described as widespread in the Ghana semi-deciduous forest zone, from leaf litter sampling, by Belshaw & Bolton (1994b) but, although found at seven sites, only 16 workers were collected (1992).

Lévieux & Diomande (1978) in their description of the activity of Pachycondyla sennaarensis, mention this species as found at Ferkéssédougou in the Ivory Coast sudan savannah zone.

The photomontage is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=sam-hym-c007963&shot=p1&project=
00°00'00"N 000°00'00"E
Collection Information: Collection codes: SAM-HYM-C007963 Date: 24 Jan 1963
Collected by: Method: Berlese funnel litter sample

The photomontage is of a specimen from Ghana, collected by S Sky Stephens, 2006. Other images can be seen in the folder at -