Axinidris palligastrion

This species has been collected from tree trunks where it was sharing foraging trails with Crematogaster clariventris.

Identification
Snelling (2007) - Scape without and pronotum with erect hairs; medial carina present; distance between spines equal to PPW; pronotum smooth and shiny; mesonotum without rugae; gaster yellowish red, not concolorous with mesosoma.

Similar to Axinidris nigripes. The gaster is distinctly lighter in color than the head and mesosoma, but is not distinctly bicolored as in the otherwise similar Axinidris mlalu, a species that lacks erect pronotal hairs (present in A. palligastrion).

Shattuck (1991) - A. palligastrion is very similar to Axinidris nigripes, but can be separated based on its smaller size, shallower clypeal notch, and differing colour pattern (head and thorax dark, gaster light).

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Afrotropical Region: Ghana.

Castes
Known only from the worker caste.

Nomenclature

 *  palligastrion. Axinidris palligastrion Shattuck, 1991: 118, figs. 29-31, 35 (w.) GHANA. See also: Snelling, R.R. 2007: 571.

Worker
(n=5). OOD 0.29-0.32, EL 0.26-0.30, HL 0.87-0.93, EW 0.12-0.14, HW 0.81-0.85, CNW 0.04-0.06, CND 0.05-0.06, SL 0.61-0.67, AL 1.05-1.16, PpW 0.42-0.45, SW 0.35-0.37, CI 0.91-0.94, CNI 1.07-1.34, REL 0.31-0.35, ScI 0.72-0.78, SpI 1.22-1.29. Erect hairs present on gastric tergites 1-4; body colour reddish brown, gaster lighter. Head finely punctate and superimposed with fine strigulate sculpture (stronger on the clypeus than posteriorly); the area near the mandibular insertion with a narrow area of strigulate sculpturing. Head with numerous short erect hairs distributed from the occipital border to the anterior clypeal margin. Erect and suberect hairs absent from antennal scapes. Entire alitrunk smooth to imbricate and very finely punctate, and with the area between the metanotal spiracles containing several short carina. Pronotum with 2-8 short, erect hairs. Propodeal spiracle as in Axinidris tridens. Medial propodeal carina expanded medially and located posterior of a line drawn between the propodeal spiracles to just anterior of the petiolar insertion. Propodeal spines directed postero-laterally, with the outer surfaces slightly concave, the distal ends approximately the same width as the maximum propodeal width, and the area between them more or less fiat. Erect hairs present on gastric tergites 1-4. Body colour reddish brown, the mandibles and tarsi slightly lighter, and the gaster yellowish red.

Type Material
Holotype worker and three worker paratypes from GHANA: Nswam (=Nsawam) (P.Room).

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

 * Shattuck S. O. 1991. Revision of the dolichoderine ant genus Axinidris (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Systematic Entomology 16: 105-120.
 * Shattuck S. O. 1994. Taxonomic catalog of the ant subfamilies Aneuretinae and Dolichoderinae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). University of California Publications in Entomology 112: i-xix, 1-241.