The Ants of Africa

	The Ants of Africa SUBFAMILY MYRMICINAE - Genus Pheidologeton
Contents - Myrmicinae - MYRMICINAE Introduction

Genus Pheidologeton Mayr (1862: 750)

In Tribe PHEIDOLOGETONINI.

Diagnostic Features - Strongly polymorphic, usually with a graded series connecting the minor workers with the large majors . Mandibles of major workers edentate or with reduced rounded teeth, minor workers with five or six teeth. Eyes present. Antennae 11-segmented with a 2-segmented club. Promesonotal suture absent in minor workers, increasingly developed with increased worker size. Metanotal groove impressed; propodeum bispinose. Red or red-brown to black, head and thorax sculpture variable, usually less pronounced in minors, gaster smooth and shiny. Mayr's (1862: 750) description of the genus is at .

{Pheidologeton kunensis} See the illustration as an example of the highly divergent polymorphism - Pheidologeton kunensis Ettershank (1966); originally described by Santschi (1928f) as Ph. arnoldi.

Bolton (1973a) notes the members are found under rotten logs and are uncommon in West Africa but it will be seen that there are no reports of workers from West Africa or the Congo Basin and that there is no association between the species below as regards males and queens - the simple answer may be that there is only one species represented in the area. Bolton's note appears to have been taken from Ettershank (1966), who examined the genus group and wrongly cited the Santschi (1937d) record of aberrans as "West Africa". There is no modern taxonomic revision.

All the African species for which asexual stages are known, plus diversus standfussi", appear to be the same colour, generally medium brown, with the pedicel, gaster and anterior head dark brown, and much lighter than the dark type form of diversus. It may be that there is a single sole African species, if so the prior name is Pheidologeton hostilis (F Smith).

Species described from Africa are: -
Pheidologeton_aberrans - Angola - queen only described
Pheidologeton_diversus - all forms described but from Africa there is only a single dubious record from Guinea
Pheidologeton_hammoniae - Namibia - soldier & worker
Pheidologeton_hostilis - South Africa - worker & queen only described
Pheidologeton_kunensis - Namibia - soldier, worker & queen
Pheidologeton_mayri - South Africa - queen only described
Pheidologeton_solitarius - Togo - queen only described
Pheidologeton_volsellata - Cameroun - male only described

MYRMICINAE Introduction

href="pheidologeton.htm"