Monomorium bicolor Emery

Type location Ethiopia (Emery, 1877b: 368, worker; note the Mayr, 1901b: 7, queen description is probably Monomorium albopilosum; subspecies judaicum (Menozzi, 1933b: 63, illustrated, worker) from Israel; junior synonyms aequatoriale (Santschi, 1926b: 240, worker) from Cameroun, collected at Great Batanga, by G. Schwab, 1911; coerulescens (Santschi, 1912c: 148, worker) from Djibouti, rufibasis (Santschi, 1914d: 353, worker) from Egypt, and uelense (Santschi, 1926b: 239, worker) and tropicale (Santschi, 1926b: 240, all forms) from Zaïre (see Bolton, 1995) .

Emery's (1877b) description is at . Santschi's (1912c) description of coerulescens is at Santschi's (1914d) note and brief key is at . Santschi's (1926b) description of several varieties is at Menozzi's (1933b) illustrated description of judaicum is at Bolton's modern description (1987) is at .

Nigeria specimen (Taylor, 1980a: 29) - WORKER. TL 2.89 mm, HL 0.78, HW 0.62, SL 0.67, PW 0.37
Others TL 3.2-3.9 (Bolton, 1987). Colour orange-brown, gaster black. Head, alitrunk and pedicel densely spiculate. Few erect hairs on the gaster, pedicel and the anterior of the head; short but sparse pilosity all over.

Widely distributed throughout Africa north of the Equator, principally in drier areas; in forest zones on paths where open to the sun. Wheeler (1922) listed it also from Guinea (Kindia and Mamou, by F. Silvestri) and Ivory Coast (by Lohier). In Guinea the Mt. Nimba surveys found it to be abundant in savanna and forest, although not above 1200 m (Bernard, 1952).

Nests in open ground, in Nigeria, I found it not common at CRIN, but forages on the ground and will tend aphids on cocoa flowers near ground level. Bolton (1987) listed CRIN (B. Bolton, B. Taylor), Mokwa (C. Longhurst), Bakura and Sokoto (E.A. Mill) and near Lake Chad (J.C. Deeming).

In Ghana from Mole Game Reserve (J.C. Grieg), Bolgatanga, Mampong and Tumu (P.M. Room) (Bolton, 1987). Listed from open ground at the Mampong Cemetery farm by Room (1971). A single worker was found in leaf litter under primary forest at Mankrang Forest Reserve by Belshaw & Bolton (1994b).

Otherwise from Togo, at Tové (B. Dufour); Liberia, at Monrovia (no details); and Cameroun, at Great Batanga and Metet (G. Schwab) and Nko'emvon (D.A. Jackson).

The photomontage is of specimens collected in Cameroun (McKey Wolbachia project) - south-western tropical coastal forest area between Edéa and Campo - Cameroon 110 from location Yaoundé, 24 April 2001, in herbaceous vegetation, about 20 cm tall, in a domestic garden; another collection was Cameroon 126, from the soudano-guinean savannah 30 Km east of Poli, 15 June 2001. Other images can be seen in the folder at -

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

Other images from Sudan, Dinder (Aldinder) National Park Centre 11°21' N and long 35°02' E along Sudan-Ethiopian Boundary, collector Awatif Omer, 2006, at . Also from Egypt, Saloga Island, collector Mostafa Sharaf at .