Lepisiota gerardi (Santschi)

Type location Zaïre (Acantholepis gerardi , n. sp., Santschi, 1915c: 262, worker, not illustrated) collected at Katanga, Upper Lukuga, Kataki, by Gérard; holotype worker only .

Santschi's (1915c) description is at
My translation: WORKER. TL 2.5 mm; head a little longer than wide; rounded up to the eyes; posteriorly without angles; sides of head slightly convex before the eyes, slightly converging anteriorly. Mandibles smooth and shiny, partially covered by the clypeus. Clypeus strongly carinate and convex in profile. Eyes occupying just under the median third of the head and slightly depressed posteriorly. Scape surpassing the occiput by about one-third of its length; funiculus segment 1 one and a half times the length of those following, and twice as long as wide. Pronotum depressed in a transverse oval; anterior 5/6 with blunt raised borders giving a strongly concave transverse profile. Meso-metanotum as waisted as in frauenfeldi (European) and almost as long; spiracles much more raised into conical prominences. Propodeum with robust lateral lobes, raised and diverging to give elongated, but rounded cones, as long as the half the basal separation. Petiole scale very high, inclined backwards and very narrow at the summit; that terminating in two spines as little longer than the interval between them; posterior pedicel shorter than the height of the scale. Gaster rounded.
Colour black; appendages brown, except apical part of scapes and tibiae which are darker brown. Overall dull matt; dorsum of head and pronotum, plus gaster shiny and smooth. Front of head feebly reticulated; rest densely and very finely reticulo-striate longitudinally. Mesothorax mostly fairly strongly longitudinally striate/rugose. Propodeal declivity finely tranversely striate. Some long silky black hairs dispersed on the body, mainly on the gaster. Sparse fine white and short pubescence, rare on the gaster.
Close to depressa Santschi (from Kenya) and deplanata from Tanzania, in having the concave pronotum, but separable by its elongated mesonotum and the petiole scale.

Nigeria specimens (as Acantholepis spinosior, Taylor, 1978: 37). WORKER. TL 2.43 mm, HL 0.65, HW 0.59, SL 0.76, PW 0.40
Colour black or dark red-brown, extremities lighter. Appearance dull because of an overall sculpturation of fine spiculation. Erect coarse, dark brown hairs moderately abundant on the body but sparse on the head. Propodeal prominences spinose. Petiole spines well developed and curving backwards.
Occasionally seen foraging on cocoa and will tend aphids; also found on coffee.

Also found in Ghana, as Acantholepis spinosior Forel (type location Zimbabwe, see Bolton, 1995), throughout the Mampong Cemetery Farm by Room (1971). Twenty-four workers were collected on the ground from a block of mature Amelonado cocoa at CRIG by Bigger (1981a).