Anochetus pellucidus

Brown, WL Jr.,, 1978, Contributions toward a reclassification of the Formicidae. Part VI. Ponerinae, tribe Ponerini, subtribe Odontomachiti. Section B. Genus Anochetus and bibliography., Studia Entomologica 20, pp. 549-638 : 605-606

[31] Anochetus pellucidus

Emery named Anochetus pellucidus well; the female castes are light tawny yellow, with pale yellow appendages, and the ants have a translucent look about them, especially the head and mandibles. The eyes are large and finely facetted (EL 0.27 mm in a specimen with HL + ML = 2.02 mm). The frontal striation is coarser than in the africanus and bequaerti groups, and reaches to, or very nearly to the nuchal carina in the middle, and the mandibles are relatively long and slender (fig. 3). The pronotum is coarsely rugose or reticulate-rugose in an inverted V- or U-shaped pattern, while the propodeum is densely punctulate (rarely also rugulose). The first gastric tergum is delicately reticulate or transversely rugulose over varying areas centered on the anterior disc; sometimes this fine sculpture is scarcely developed, so that practically the entire gastric dorsum is smooth and shining, with scattered dark punctures bearing sparsely distributed, long, fine, erect hairs, which are also distributed over the rest of the body and appendages.

A form ranging widely in West Africa, and apparently occurring elsewhere on the continent as well, is like pellucidus in almost all details except in its black or piceous body color (antennae, mandibles and tarsi light brownish-yellow) and its mainly rugulose propodeal dorsum (propodeal rugulosity is developed in only one pellucidus worker, from near.Epulu, in the Ituri Forest of Zaire, T. E. Gregg, MCZ).

This dark form corresponds so well to Arnold’s description of A. fuliginosus (type locality St. Lucia Lake, Zululand) that I do not hesitate to assign this name, in spite of the fact that St. Lucia Lake is far away from the West African locatities whence all of the other samples have come. Although at first one is tempted to consider fuliginosus as a color morph of pellucidus , the usual difference between them in propodeal sculpture, at least in sympatric situations in West Africa, makes it seem more likely that we are dealing with distinct species. The holotype of A. fuliginosus is in NMR-Bulawayo.

The records indicate that both species are arboreal or subarboreal foragers. Possibly Faure took the type of A. fuliginosus from an arboreal situation in Zululand, because he spent much time collecting thrips and other insects by beating branches of trees, vines and shrubs. The other available records for the species follow, based on samples examined:

A. pellucidus : Gabon, Makokou, CNRS, 1 worker, W. H. Gotwald. Ghana, 6 miles N of Takoradi, 2 workers, E. S. Ross and R. E. Leech. Ghana, Adeiso, pyrethrum knockdown, 3 workers, D. Leston. Ghana, Tafo, 1 worker under cocoa tree bark, B. Bolton. Nigeria, Gambari, in cocoa tree trunk, 1 worker, B. Bolton. Cameroun, Ekok, 24 miles E of Tekmo, 650 m, E. S. Ross and K. Lorenzen. Ivory Coast, Banco Forest, near Abidjan, 1 worker running on large rotten log in primary forest, W. L. Brown. Zaire, near Epulu, T., E. Gregg. Zaire, Mongende, H. Schouteden.

A. fuliginosus : Liberia, Monrovia, E. S. Ross and R. E. Leech, a small nest series. Ghana, Aburi, P. Room, 2 workers. Ghana, Mampong, D. Leston, 1 worker. Nigeria, Gambari, on cocoa tree trunk, 1 worker, B. Bolton.