Cataglyphis setipes (Forel)

Type location India (Myrmecocystus viaticus, Fab. r. setipes n. st., Forel, 1894c: 401, worker; Ruzky, 1902d: 9, queen & male; raised to species Bingham, 1903: 312). Agosti (1990) has the setipes complex as known from Morocco and Ghana to Central Asia and the Ganges River.

Forel's (1894c) description is at . Bingham (1903: 313) provided an illustrated description; this is at .

Petiole nodiform, gaster raised in locomotion, propodeum arched (from key to species-groups in Agosti, 1990). The setipes complex was given by Agosti (1990) as having workers which are large (alitrunk length < 5 mm) bicoloured with thick, bristle-like pubescence on the hind tibiae. Santschi (1929b) noted it also as dull red with a black gaster.

Bingham (1903) wrote of it as - WORKER - TL 10-12 mm; head, alitrunk and pedicel node dark red, gaster black, the legs darker than the alitrunk almost black; pilosity on head, alitrunk and gaster sparse, confined to a few scattered erect hairs, most numerous on the underside of the gaster; legs densely setose and spinose; pubescence extremely minute and fine, but with a silvery glint, giving the whole ant a dull subopaque appearance.

C. setipes appears to be limited to the Indian subcontinent and I suspect the Ghana record is a confusion with Cataglyphis seticornis. The photomontage is from the images at The Discover Life website