Crematogaster (Atopogyne) laurenti (Forel)

Type location Zaïre (Cremastogaster africana ssp laurenti, Forel, 1909b: 69, worker) from Bokala, by Laurent; subspecies zeta (Forel, 1909b: 70; Emery, 1922e: 155, worker) from Zaïre ; worker only described (see Bolton, 1995) .

Forel's (1909b) description of laurenti is at .
My translation is - TL 1.8-2.6 mm; smaller and contrasting with the type - of africana - in being smaller and having very light sculpturation. Whole body shiny black. Thorax and head partly and feebly rugose or reticulate. Propodeum spines narrower and shorter; petiole node trapezoidal. Congo samples 107, 109, 110, 117 from Bokula, Isangani and Kisangani [Stanleyville] in hollow twigs of Plectroctonia laurenti and Cuviera angolensis.

Forel (1909b) also described zeta, separating it from laurenti by having the funiculi brown, whereas the apical half was yellow in the type; the propodeal spines also were a little longer. The specimens were from a hollow twig of an unnamed plant.

Wheeler (1922) also listed it from Nigeria (at Oni Camp, east of Lagos, by Lamborn). Bequaert (1922, p 467) described how the tree Randia physophylla, does not have swollen or even hollow stems but does have expanded, or inflated leafbases and, near Leopoldville, he found some of these expansions to be pouch-like with a gland secreting a sweet substance. On some leaves specimens of Crem. laurenti (as an ssp of Crem. africana and as variety zeta) had taken possession of these distended nectaria, closing the opening with fibrous carton and often enclosing coccids; he noted also that they build tents over coccids on fruit. The main host plant, however, seems likely to be Plectronia laurentii, although it also was found in a Cuviera plant (Bequaert, 1922, p 473 & 492).

Santschi (1935) noted a specimen from Kondue, Zaïre, collected by Luja.

Bernard (1952) thought that a single queen, from scrub at Nion crest, 1300 m, was of this "common western species".