Plectroctena mandibularis F. Smith

Type location South Africa (F. Smith, 1858b: 101, illustrated, male & ergatoid queen); junior synonyms caffra (Spinola, 1853: 70, nomen nudum, synonymy Roger, 1861: 41, all forms), major (Forel, 1894b: 74, ergatoid queen) from Mozambique, integra (Santschi, 1924a: 161, worker & male) from Kenya, strialiventris (Stitz, in Santschi, 1924a: 162, worker) from Tanzania (Lake Tanganyika; wrongly given as "Malawi" by Bolton, 1974b & 1995: 338); all forms described (Bolton, 1995) .

Note - Plectroctena caffra Klug is referred to by Spinola (1853) whose paper dealt with Hymenoptera from Brazil, collected by Ghiliani, as caffra KL.M.B = Klug (J.C.?), Museé de Berlin. Emery (1982d: 556) defined P. minor (see below) by comparison with P. caffra giving an accurate illustration of the latter. Also Forel (1894) referred to P caffra, the name, however, is regarded as a nomen nudum by Bolton (1974b). In his Catalogue, Emery (1911d: 95, with the illustration) listed it as a synonym of P. mandibularis F Smith - Formica caffra (Klug) Spinola (1853) "pas de description". Thus, it seems the Klug description either was not published or was lost or the name simply was on a label of a specimen in the Berlin Museum.

F Smith's (1858b) description is at Spinola's (1853) note on caffra is at Roger's (1861) note is at Emery's (1892d) description of minor makes extensive comparison with P. caffra; see Forel's (1894b) description of major is at . Arnold's (1915: 86) description of major is at and . Santschi's (1924a) description of strialiventris is at . Santschi's (1924a) description of integra is at . Bolton's modern description (1974b) is at

WORKER - large, TL 15.5-24.1 mm; separation as in the key (Bolton, 1974b: 326, not illustrated); illustration of pedicel from Emery (1892d, Plate 15). Bolton (1974b) wrote of males of conjugata having totally black gasters whereas those of mandibularis have red or orange-brown gasters. The images on www.Antweb.org at http://www.antweb.org/getComparison.do?rank=species&genus=plectroctena&name=mandibularis&project=&project=, if antything confuse the situation.

Note - included as Wheeler (1922) listed a finding from Cameroun, by Conradt (presumably at Mundame); apparently not detected by Bolton, who (like Wheeler) gave very many African locations in countries east and south of Cameroun.

Bolton & Brown (2002) added numerous findings from Botswana, Burundi, Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania, strengthening the suspicion that it is not known from West Africa or the Congo Basin. Indeed, in their key, Bolton & Brown (2002) list only east and southern African countries.

Nests in soil, deep below the surface, with no more than about 50 individuals; feeds primarily on millipedes and beetles, also termites.

The photomontage is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=SAM-HYM-C008861B.