Pyramica (Smithistruma) ninda (Bolton)
Type location Cameroun (Bolton, 1983: 284, illustrated,
full-face view, worker), collected at Nko'emvon by D.A. Jackson,
28.1x.1980; holotype and 6 paratype workers; two further
collections at same site
 .
Bolton's description (1983) is at
 .
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Nigeria specimen (as Miccostruma species T¹,
Taylor 1979: 43). WORKER. TL 1.63 mm, HL 0.48, HW 0.37, SL 0.20,
PW 0.22
Colour dark yellow-brown, extremities orange, shiny except for
the head. Eyes moderate below the scrobes. Very sparse pilosity
just visible on the head and gaster under high magnification.
Erect hairs, all spatulate, are restricted to the antennal scapes,
the gastral apex, a pair at the anterior end of the first gastral
tergite and a pair on the post petiole.
I collected a single specimen at the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria, Idi Ayunre. It was on
cocoa flowers at 120 cm above ground, together with Tapinoma
lugubre (previously Technomyrmex detorquens) possibly tending aphids.
This was listed by Bolton (1983),
together with findings from IITA (B.R. Critchley; A.
Russell-Smith).
Ghana records include CRIG (D. Leston) and Mampong (P.M.
Room). Latter listed as Miccostruma mandibularis, from
soil under Euphorbia at Mampong Cemetery farm (Room,
1971). Recently, collected from leaf litter (55 workers) under
cocoa at Ofinso, Effiduase and Bunso, secondary forest at Nkwanda,
and primary forest at Bunso in the semi-deciduous forest zone, by
Belshaw & Bolton (1994b).
Also known from Ivory Coast, at Gregbeu and Mongaga (V.
Mahnert & J.-L. Perret); and from Chad at Umg. Maundou (H.
Franz). |
The
photomontage of the holotype is collated from