The Ants of Africa
Genus Vicinopone
Vicinopone conciliatrix (Brown)

Vicinopone conciliatrix (Brown)

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{link to the Hymenoptera Name Server} Type location Ghana (Simopone conciliatrix new species, Brown, 1975: 79, illustrated, adapted right, worker & queen; new genus placement Bolton & Fisher, 2012: 74); known from workers and wingless queens; with 12-segmented antennae .


{Simopone conciliatrix}Brown's description (1975) was -
WORKER - TL 2.4-3.4 mm, HW 0.53-0.68, HW 0.33-0.42, SL 0.18-0.29 (Ghana specimens)
Head in full face view strongly elongate, with parallel but distinctly convex sides, subrectangular posterior angles and a finely marginate feebly concave posterior border. Eyes large broad elliptical and weakly convex, situated anteriorly. Antennae 12-segmented; funiculus apically incrassate; funiculus segments 2-9 longer than broad, apical segment more than twice as long as subapical, last four segments forming a faint club. No ocelli. Alitrunk almost three times as long as broad; only feebly constricted in the middle; declivity of propodeum with a distinct raised semicircular margin. Petiole barrel-shaped, convex laterally and vertically, with a fine dorsolateral margin; subpetiolar process low with a pointed anterior convexity and a tapered posterior part. Pygidium with an impressed, nearly flat disc, bordered laterally with a continuous U-shaped margin with 20+ minute denticles and a stout sting from the true apex.
Body slender, more or less cylindrical, including appendages; colour yellow, smooth and shining with scattered piligerous punctures, except for limited faintly longitudinal striolate-puncturation on centre and sides of head, along lower sides of alitrunk and lower sides of petiole; space between frontal carinae finely roughened. Pilosity sparse, short, fine and decumbent to suberect, except for an erect hair on each humerus; longer such hairs on the petiole, postpetiole and gaster. Scapes and legs with fine pilosity, funiculi with many short hairs, except apical segment which has dense fine micropubescence.
Collected by B Bolton, holotype plus 120 other workers and two dealate queens and larvae, from a nest about 2 meters above ground in a hollow twig on a cocoa tree, in moderate shade, at Tafo (CRIG) in Ghana, 27 November 1970. Brown also saw two workers from the Yangambi Reserve, nesting in hollow twigs, Yangambi, Zaïre (A Raignier & J van Boven, 6 October 1949). Named conciliatrix as it conciliated a mixture of characters of Lioponera (=Phyracaces), Simopone and Cerapachys


{Simopone conciliatrix}The photomontage of the holotype is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0902700.


{Simopone conciliatrix}The photomontage is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0172777.
Collection Information: CASENT0172777; Locality: Gabon: Ogooué-Maritime: Gamba; 02°43'00"S 009°59'00"E; 50 m; Collection codes: SY-311; Collected by: S.P.Yanoviak; Habitat: rainforest canopy; Date: 10-24 Apr 2006

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© 2007, 2009, 2010, 2013 - Brian Taylor CBiol FSB FRES
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