Anochetus pubescens

Collected in various forest types from the ground, litter and on vegetation.

Identification
This species should probably be counted as belonging to the grandidieri-punctaticeps group because of its modest size, compact build and the proportions of the funicular segments. In some ways, particularly the habitus of the head and mandibles, it resembles Anochetus graeffei.

Distribution
Known from Zimbabwe, Comoros, Mayotte and Madagascar.

This taxon was described from Zimbabwe.

Castes
Queens and males have been collected but are undescribed.

Nomenclature

 *  pubescens. Anochetus pubescens Brown, 1978c: 607, figs. 10, 16 (w.) ZIMBABWE.

Worker
Holotype, worker: TL 4.9, HL 1.13, HW 1.02, ML 0.60, WL 1.45, scape L 0.91, eye L 0.14. mm; CI 90, MI 53.

Castaneous (medium orange-brown); posterior corners of head, antennae and legs lighter, more yellowish-brown; gaster very slightly darker brown.

Resembling the largest specimens of Anochetus grandidieri, but with the following differences:

1) In full-face view, antennal scapes at rest surpass posterior borders of occipital lobes by nearly the apical scape thickness.

2) Eyes, though modest in size, distinctly larger than in grandidieri and related species. There seem to be about 33 ommatidia in each eye.

3) The frontal striation is very fine and close, giving the surface there a sericeous appearance at magnifications of about 25X; it extends all the way to the nuchal carina in a median band, but extends only part way out onto the occipital lobes, which are otherwise smooth and shining.

4) Pronotum densely rugulose-punctate in an ellipse around a very narrow median strip that is nearly smooth, with coarse punctures, and shining. Mesonotum finely transversely striolate, subopaque; propodeal dorsum rugulose in a more or less transverse direction. Gaster smooth and shining, without conspicuous punctures.

5) Erect pilosity largely suppressed, consisting only of a few fine erect hairs on anterior part of head, on mandibles, on underside of gaster, and near posterior margins of the second and succeeding gastric terga. Dorsal surfaces of body with abundant and conspicuous, short, appressed and subappressed pubescence, which also extends to appendages as a short, appressed to decumbent fuzz.

Funiculus rather robust, segments II through VIII thick, scarcely longer than broad; II and III together are slightly shorter than I and II-IV are subequal in length; apical segment very long. The petiolar node, while narrow and sharply tapered as seen from the side, has the tip more blunt (fig. 16) than in grandidieri, and about as in Anochetus punctaticeps.

Type Material
Holotype taken in the Vumba Mountains, near Umtali on the eastern border of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), 11 March 1969 (W. L. Brown). The specimen came from under a rock in a grassy cleared sloping area along the main road through the mountains; a forest remnant was farther down the slope nearby.