SUBFAMILY MYRMICINAE - Genus Pyramica - subgenus Glamyromyrmex
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The Ants of Africa SUBFAMILY MYRMICINAE - Genus Pyramica - subgenus Glamyromyrmex |
| Genus Pyramica |
In Tribe DACETINI.
Diagnostic Features - Head elongate, with simple hairs. Antennae 6-segmented, the second and third funicular segments reduced. Mandibles short and subtriangular, with less than 10 teeth. Antennal scrobes present above the eyes. Propodeum armed with a pair of teeth and a lamella running the length of the declivity. Petiole and postpetiole with spongiform appendages.
Wheeler's (1915e) genus description is at
.
His description of the type species, Glamyrmomyrmex beebei, from
Brazil is at
,
with the illustrations on
.
Bolton (1973a) describes them as minute (TL 2.00 or less) brown-black ants found in West Africa only by Berlese funnel sampling of leaf litter. Bolton (1983) revised the genus and included species (such as the Room, 1971, species, see below) formerly ascribed to Codiomyrmex Wheeler; which according to Hölldobler & Wilson (1990) is a solely neotropical genus, although their illustrations showed a species from Australia.
Key to workers of African species (adapted from Bolton, 1983):
| 1 | Clypeal dorsum with elevated hairs and no appressed small hairs; TL 1.7 mm; glossy dull yellow | Cameroun - trymala |
| -- | Clypeal dorsum with appressed small hairs, may be simple, spatulate or scale-like | 2 |
| 2 | Appressed hairs on clypeal dorsum simple, fine and minute | 3 |
| -- | Appressed hairs on clypeal dorsum flattened, spatulate or scale-like | 6 |
| 3 | Posterior margin of occiput broadly raised and bounded by lateral flat areas raised; pronotum laterally with a sharp margin; postpetiole disc with fine longitudinal striations | 4 |
| -- | Posterior margin of occiput not broadly raised; pronotum laterally without a sharp margin; postpetiole disc smooth or with lateral shagreening | 7 |
| . | Posterior margin of occiput broadly raised and bounded by lateral flat areas raised; pronotum laterally with a sharp margin; postpetiole disc with fine longitudinal striations | . |
| 4 |  In
full face view sides with projecting flagellate hairs; such hairs also
numerous on postpetiole and first gastral tergite |
5 |
| -- |  In
full face view sides without projecting flagellate hairs; postpetiole
and first gastral tergite with only sparse short straight hairs; TL
2.4-2.8 mm; blackish-brown to black |
Western Africa - Angola north to Ghana - tetragnatha |
| 5 |
TL 3.0 mm; black. |
Gabon - africana |
| -- |  Appears
to differ from africanus primarily in having a more slender head
; blackish-brown to black; TL ca 2.5 mm plus |
Gabon - fisheri |
| . | Appressed hairs on clypeal dorsum flattened, spatulate or scale-like | . |
| 6 |  In
profile head with very thick lobes to the clypeus; anterior clypeal
margin with a semicircular median impression; TL 2.0-2.1 mm;
yellowish-brown |
. |
| . |  |
Rwanda - dagon |
| -- |  In
profile head with narrow edges to the clypeus; anterior clypeal margin
evenly and shallowly concave; TL 2.1-2.3 mm; brown |
. |
| . |  |
Rwanda - sahura |
| . | Posterior margin of occiput not broadly raised; pronotum laterally without a sharp margin; postpetiole disc smooth or with lateral shagreening | . |
| 7 | Entire dorsum of head densely clothed with appressed scale-like hairs, no other pilosity | 8 |
| -- | Dorsum of head without appressed scale-like hairs, sides of head with projecting flagellate hairs | 9 |
| 8 |  First
gastral tergite with erect fine simple hairs; TL 1.6 mm; glossy dull
yellow |
. |
| . |  |
Ivory Coast - tukulta |
| -- |  First
gastral tergite with appressed spatulate to scale-like hairs only; TL
2.1 mm; dark brown |
. |
| . |  |
Cameroun & Gabon - ravidura |
| 9 |  Cephalic
dorsum with widely spaced fovea giving a cratered appearance; TL 2.2 mm;
castaneous, head darker blackish-brown except for ferruginous clypeus
and mandibles |
. |
| . |  |
Kenya - thuvida |
| -- | Cephalic dorsum reticulate-punctate, without fovea; larger black or blackish-brown | 10 |
| 10 | Postpetiole with spongiform tissue restricted to posterodorsal angles; petiole node with smooth shiny dorsum; basal lamellate band on gaster interrupted medially; TL 2.2 mm; brown | Malawi - loveridgei |
| -- | Postpetiole with spongiform tissue over all of sides; dorsum of petiole node sculptured (at least in part); basal lamellate band on gaster not wholly interrupted medially | 11 |
| 11 |  Mandible
with 6 enlarged teeth, without medially-projecting broad spatulate hairs
between the basal tooth and the basal lamella; TL 1.9-2.0 mm; black to
blackish-brown |
. |
| . |  |
Cameroun - sistrura |
| -- |  Mandible
with 5 enlarged teeth, plus medially-projecting broad spatulate hairs
between the basal tooth and the basal lamella; TL 2.0 mm; blackish-brown |
Ghana - cryptura |
 |
MYRMICINAE Introduction | © 2007, 2008 - Brian Taylor CBiol
FIBiol FRES 11, Grazingfield, Wilford, Nottingham, NG11 7FN, U.K. |
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