Atopomyrmex mocquerysi Ern

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 : 181-182

Atopomyrmex mocquerysi Ern . André

Faradje, [[worker]], [[queen]]; Lukolela to Basoko, [[worker]]; Akenge, [[worker]]; Medje, [[worker]] (Lang and Chapin); Matadi, [[worker]] (J. Bequaert).

This species is so variable that it is doubtful whether Forel's variety curvispina and Santschii variety australis can be retained. The small workers among all the specimens before me have the epinotal spines more or less curved and directed backward, whereas in the large workers they are straight, more erect and more diverging. Besides the material from the localities cited above, I have specimens from the Congo, received from Ern, André, Delagoa Bay (P. Berthoud), Mwengwa, North West Rhodesia (H, Dollman), and Xalasi (C. W. Howard). There are also noticeable differences in the length and tenuity of the petiolar spines and in the strength of the cephalic and thoracic sculpture. The latter is noticeably strong in the specimens from Akenge, so that the head is scarcely shining in the occipital region.

The specimens taken by Lang and Chapin were nesting in cavities in dead wood. Those taken by Dr. Bequaert were "sucking nectar from the flowers of a tree (Anacardiaceae) in the rocky savannah." Arnold says of the variety curvispina, that "it is a slow ant, living in trees and mainly carnivorous in its diet. The nest is usually situated in a hollow stem, some distance above the ground. Like Crematogaster , these ants, when disturbed, exude a whitish and rather sticky secretion from the anal glands. It has not been found by me except in districts containing large trees." Bequaert found the nest of the typical mocquerysi "in a cavity in the wood at the base of a fig-tree (River Lovoi, near Kikondja, October 18, 1911)." He writes further: "I captured the male and female of this species in copula, flying in bright daylight (at noon) at the beginning of October (beginning of the rainy season)." The male and female of the species was first described by Forel from these specimens taken by Bequaert in the Katanga.