Tetramorium nodiferum (Emery)

Type location Cameroun (Atopomyrmex nodifer n. sp., Emery, 1901f: 115 (footnote), illustrated, worker & queen; combination in Atopula by Emery, 1912b: 104; as Atopula nodifera in Wheeler, 1922; Tetramorium nodiferum by Bolton, 1976: 362) collected by L. Conradt
worker and queen described (see Bolton, 1980, 1995) .

Emery's (1901f) description is at . Emery's (1912b) incorporation in Atopula, as genus type species, is at . Bolton's modern description (1980) is at .

WORKER - TL 4.4-4.6 mm; characterised by long narrow head and short scapes; frontal carinae short and antennal scrobes absent. Distinct transverse rugular sculpture on the propodeum. Colour uniform dark brown to blackish brown, sometimes with a very dull reddish tint (Bolton, 1980: 349, illustrated).

Also (not listed by Bolton, 1980) reported by Bernard (1952) from Guinea, Mt. Nimba, N'Zo, 500 m, 2 workers, and Nion, 1 worker (as Atopula nodifera, collector Lamotte). Bernard remarked that the enormous head merited the conservation of the genus Atopula whereas the species A. belti (now Aphaenogaster belti from Madagsacar), ceylonica (now Paratopula ceylonica, from Sri Lanka) and hortensis (now junior synonym of Tetramorium sericeiventre) were placed in Leptothoracini [no longer the case].

Found at CRIG, Ghana (B. Bolton, without details, 1976).

Mentioned by Bolton (1976) as a synonymization of Atopula nodifera Emery, being "a quite ordinary tetramoriine", although he noted later (Bolton, 1980) that the head and scape characters isolated it from most other Tetramorium of this region. It perhaps is symptomatic of Bolton's approach that he (Bolton, 1980, 350) claimed that "the types of the type-species of Atopula were shown by Bolton (1976: 362) to belong to Tetramorium, and Atopula thus fell as a synonym of this genus; the other constituents of Atopula were dispersed to separate genera in that paper". The use of the word "shown" is over-generous as earlier workers, including Bernard (1952, of whom Bolton is scathing as regards hortensis) had reassigned the other "Atopula" species.

The photomontage is of a worker from the type collection; collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0904713.

The photomontage is of a worker from Kenya; collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0178337.