Paltothyreus, Mayr

Wheeler, W. M., 1922, The ants collected by the American Museum Congo Expedition., Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 45, pp. 39-269 : 60-61

Paltothyreus Mayr

Worker.-Large black ants, with monomorphic workers. Clypeus in the middle with an elevated lobe, which is truncated anteriorly and projecting over the anterior clypeal border, marginate on the sides, excavated in the middle and extending back like a spearhead between the frontal carinae which are moderately dilated and subtriangularly lobate. Mandibles elongate, triangular, their apical borders finely denticulate. Antennal funiculi slightly thickened distally. Eyes situated in front of the middle of the head. Thorax unarmed, not impressed dorsally; promesonotal suture distinct, mesoepinotal suture obsolete dorsally. Petiole surmounted by an erect scale. Constriction between the postpetiole and the gaster feeble; gaster rather long. Claws with a tooth in the middle.

Female very similar to the worker but considerably larger and winged; thorax depressed, pronotum broadly exposed.

Male with triangular clypeus furnished near its anterior border with a small conical tubercle; its posterior portion not prolonged backward between the antennal insertions. Antennae long, scape much shorter than the second funicular joint.

Pronotum above largely exposed; mesonotum with traces of Mayrian furrows. Petiole surmounted by a thick node, its ventral surface convex, but not toothed. Postpetiole; anteriorly with a strong tooth. Pygidium acutely pointed but not prolonged into a spine.

This genus is monotypic, the single species P. tarsatus ranging over the whole of the Ethiopian Region (Map 8) as one of its most conspicuous and characteristic ants.