Carebara crigensis

The type material was collected from leaf litter in cocoa farms in the moist forest zone.

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Afrotropical Region: Ghana.

Nomenclature

 *  crigensis. Afroxyidris crigensis Belshaw & Bolton, 1994: 632, figs. 1-3 (w.) GHANA. Combination in Carebara: Fernández, 2004a: 235.

Worker
Minute (total length c. 1-5 mm) subterranean myrmicine ants with the following combination of characters.

Mandible with two apical teeth followed by a long oblique edentate margin and a smaller basal tooth.

Median portion of clypeus with a transverse step and without distinct longitudinal carinae.

Anterior margin of clypeus lacking an isolated median seta.

Antenna of 10 segments including a 2 segmented club.

Eye absent (its position marked by a small pigmented spot).

Frontal carinae and antennal scrobes absent.

Alitrunk compact; metanotal groove shallow in profile.

Propodeum unarmed and rounded; propodeal ( = metapleural) lobes rounded and small (not extended dorsally as lamellae).

Petiolar spiracle on the node, which is evenly rounded in profile and with a keel-like ventral process.

First gastral tergite extensively overlapping the first sternite.

Tibial spurs of middle and hind legs reduced to hairs.

Sting well developed and sabre-like.

With characters of the generic diagnosis. Colour yellow throughout. Head and body without sculpturing and with fairly dense short hairs, most of which are at an angle of approximately 45 ° to the vertical (those on the dorsum of the head are more adpressed). In full face view a triangular gap present between the mandibles at full closure and the anterior clypeal margin. Median portion of clypeus rather broadly inserted between the frontal lobes: its width similar to that of one of the frontal lobes where it passes between them. Propodeal spiracle situated near the centre of the propodeum in lateral view. Petiole with a short peduncle and a very small subpetiolar process.

TL 1.41-1.50, HL 0.39-0.41, HW 0.31, CI 79-76, SL 0.20, SI 65, PW 0.24, AL 0.41-0.42. First figure refers to holotype, the second to paratype.

Type Material
Two workers extracted by one of us (R.B.) from leaf litter in cocoa farms in the moist forest zone of Ghana, West Africa. HOLOTYPE worker from farm at Poano (Ashanti Region), collected 9.ix.1992 (now in The Natural History Museum, London, UK). PARATYPE worker from farm near Ofinso (Ashanti Region), collected 2.xi. 1992 (now in Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, MS, USA).

Etymology
From CRIG (Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana).

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

 * Belshaw R., and B. Bolton. 1994. A survey of the leaf litter ant fauna in Ghana, West Africa (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Journal of Hymenoptera Research 3: 5-16.
 * Belshaw R., and B. Bolton. 1994. A survey of the leaf litter ant fauna in Ghana, West Africa (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Journal of Hymenoptera Research. 3: 5-16.