Aenictus boltoni

Identification
This species can be separated from the rest of the mariae complex species as dorsopropeum is mainly smooth (reticulated in Aenictus hitai) and does not present the lateropropodeal pubescence characteristic of Aenictus steindachneri.

Separation from A. mariae minors as in the following table.

This species does not present a marked allometry (CSR 114) as the other three species (CSR 131 for A. mariae and >170 for A. hitai and A. steindachneri) and seems to have a smaller maximum size (HW < 0.42 against 0.52 for mariae or 0.69 for steindachneri), though this can be due to a lack of material as the four species have similar minimum sizes (HW> 0.28 for hitai and >0.36 for the rest).

Also, this species seems to be distributed in West Africa, while the other three inhabit Southern and Western Africa and their distribution don’t seem to overlap.

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Afrotropical Region: Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria.

Nomenclature

 * . Aenictus boltoni Gómez, 2022: 49, figs. 32A-D, 33 (w.) NIGERIA.

Type Material

 * Holotype worker: NIGERIA: • Gambari 14/08/1969 (Bolton, B.) (1w) [NHMUK012849298].
 * Paratype workers: • same data, (2w each) [NHMUK012849294 to NHMUK012849297] ; same data (1w) [NHMUK012849327].