Pheidole nigritella Bernard

Major - Minor - Type location Guinea (Bernard, 1952, illustrated) from Mt. Nimba, 3 majors and 9 minors, from three forest locations; Ziéla, F 80 Gouéla, B8-10 Zouépo, 1215 m (Lamotte); major & minor described (see Bolton, 1995) .

Bernard's (1952) description is at . This translated is -
MAJOR - TL 3.6-3.8 mm, HL 1.5, HW 1.15; head and thorax pitch brown, often black posteriorly, petiole and gaster pure black, shiny. Head matt, finely and entirely recticulo-striated, with fine reticulation between the striations. Thorax and abdomen smooth. Fine yellow hairs common on the head and body. Appendages yellow-brown, short and thick, save the antennae which are slender by comparison with related species. Head parallel sided, slightly enlarged posteriorly. Clypeus straight, brown, puncturated, a little concave anteriorly but frontal area without a median carina. Frontal groove well developed large on the posterior part. Antennae slender, segments longer than wide. Mandibles brown, finely and regularly striated. In profile, prothorax very convex, metanotal groove very wide. Petiole small and elevated. Postpetiole shiny, finely puncturated, slightly wider than long. Head illustrated in scanned photocopy of photo (left).

WORKER - TL 2.0-2.1 mm; black, very shiny, puncturation fine and serrated, appendages brown. Head slightly longer than wide, very rounded posteriorly; occiput is straight, bordered and wide. Antennae slender, in the funiculus segments 2 and 3 are equal, three times longer than wide, segment 4 twice as long as wide. Prothorax as convex as the soldier; propodeum puncturate except on anterior third. Petiole slender, node less elevated than that of the soldier. Postpetiole as the soldier. All body parts are more elongated than those of the other minute Pheidole in the termitophila group (after Bernard, 1952).

Bernard (1952) described this as the only black species among the minute Pheidole of Africa, other than Ph. capensis from southern areas.

From the description, apart from the form of the head in profile (not described for bequaerti), this seems probably to be the junior synonym of Pheidole bequaerti.

What I adjudge to be a minor of this species is shown in the photomontage of a specimen from Ghana, collected by Sky Stephens, 2006. Other images can be seen in the folder at -