Axinidris acholli

Identification
Snelling (2007) - Pronotal disc with 8-10 coarse rugae that more or less diverge behind; mesepisternum with 4 or 5 coarse longitudinal to oblique rugae; medial propodeal carina compressed and conspicuously higher than long and longer dorsally than at base; head and body with abundant long, slender whitish hairs.

The bizarrely developed propodeal structures are sufficient to separate A. acholli from all the known remaining species. Additionally, no other species is known that has such an abundance of long, flexuous white hairs. Only Axinidris lignicola and Axinidris stageri are almost as hairy, but in both the propodeal structures are much less extreme, the hairs are shorter and straighter, and the antennal scapes are proportionately much shorter.

Key to Axinidris species

Distribution
Snelling (2007) - In addition to Sudan and Kenya, I expect that A. acholli will also be found in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, at the very least.

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Afrotropical Region: Kenya, Sudan.

Castes
Known only from the worker caste.

Nomenclature

 *  acholli. Axinidris acholli Weber, 1941a: 193, figs. 10-12 (w.) SUDAN. See also: Shattuck, 1991: 109; Snelling, R.R. 2007: 556.

Snelling (2007) - I had originally regarded the Kenyan specimens as a previously undescribed species. When I examined the two type specimens of A. acholli, however, I began to doubt that this was correct. The only difference that I could discern was that the Kenyan specimens were abundantly hairy while the A. acholli types were almost completely devoid of hairs. The type specimens, lectotype and lectoparatype, consist of fragments mounted on points. The lectotype head has only a single antenna. The lectoparatype is in even worse condition: the head lacks antennae, the mesosoma is partly broken, and only a single detached hind leg is present. Both specimens appear to be severely abraded, lacking hairs where all other species possess hairs (e.g., the mandibles, clypeus, frontal carinae). Once it was clear that these poor specimens had been artificially denuded, it was obvious that my fresh Kenyan samples were conspecific.