Decamorium uelense (Santschi)

Type location Zaïre (Tetramorium (Decamorium) decem stirps uelense n. st., Santschi, 1923e: 258, worker & queen) collected at Uelé, Vankerhovenville, by Degreef; junior synonym nimba (as a subspecies of decem, Bernard, 1952: 250, worker; synonymy by Bolton, 1976: 298, also see Bolton, 1995) from Guinea, collected at Savane de Kéoulenta, station 1, by Lamotte .

Santschi's (1923e) description is at ; worker and queen.

Nigeria specimen (Taylor, 1980a: 47). WORKER. TL 3.17 mm, HL 0.68, HW 0.56, SL 0.42, PW 0.44 (in my guide as Decamorium decem)
Colour red-brown, gaster darker. Antennal scrobes present above the eyes, but the ventral margins of the scrobes are poorly defined. Mandibles with five or six teeth. Sides of median portion of clypeus and posterior margins of the lateral portions raised, bordering the antennal insertions; anterior margin concave. Anterodorsal pronotal angles acute; promesonotal suture absent; metanotal groove impressed, metanotal lobes present; propodeum bidentate. Femora of legs swollen. Sting with apicodorsal, triangular, lamelliform appendage.

Bernard (1952), in the Mt. Nimba, Guinea, report, gave TL 3.1 mm, head brown-black yellow on the anterior third of the face, which was striated and slightly shiny. Dorsal carina of head reaching about the occiput, thorax brown-black entirely striated more shouldered than the type of decem from Rhodesia. Spines, petiole and gaster similar to type but more slenderl femora also more slender. Clypeus flat, yellow, finely longitudinally striated. Antennae brown, last segment yellow; segments preceding the club twice as long as wide (decem 1.3 times as long as wide; but ultor as nimba).

Bolton (1976) noted that it appears only to form small colonies. In Nigeria, it nests in rotten logs or twigs in leaf litter. Forage in leaf litter, often in single file and will prey on termites. Quite extensively studied at Mokwa, in the Guinea savannah zone, by Longhurst, Johnson & Wood (1978), especially its foraging and predation on termites. Bradshaw & Howse (1984) mention its having a predominance of alcohols in its mandibular gland secretions. Apparently these secretions are undetectable by termites, and represent an example of "chemical crypsis".

Collected in Ghana by Bigger (1981a) at CRIG, 16 workers from the ground under Amelonado cocoa (listed as decem). He also found 2 workers of Decamorium species A on the ground at the same site. The latter may explain the confusion I feel over the Belshaw & Bolton (1994b) findings, see above.

The photomontage is of a specimen from Ghana, collected by S Sky Stephens, 2006. Other images can be seen in the folder at -