Strumigenys belial

Specimens have been collected from rainforest litter samples.

Identification
Bolton (2000) - A member of the Strumigenys thuvida-group.Closely related to Strumigenys nimravida and Strumigenys ravidura. Easily distinguished from the first by its lack of standing hairs and other pilosity details (compare descriptions), and from the second by the specialised form of the clypeus developed in that species, as described in the key.

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Afrotropical Region: Gabon.

Nomenclature

 *  belial. Pyramica belial Bolton, 2000: 331 (w.) GABON. Combination in Strumigenys: Baroni Urbani & De Andrade, 2007: 116

Worker
Holotype. TL 1.7, HL 0.50, HW 0.35, CI 70, ML 0.11, MI 22, SL 0.20, SI 57, PW 0.21, AL 0.49. Outer surfaces of mandibles, clypeus and entire cephalic dorsum densely clothed with flat appressed scale-like hairs, diameter of hairs greater than the distance separating them. Similar but more widely spaced hairs present on promesonotum, petiole node and disc of postpetiole. First gastral tergite with widely spaced minute hairs that are appressed and very narrowly spatulate. At base of limbus the tergite with a transverse row of much larger spatulate hairs that are closely appressed to the limbus and extend anteriorly across almost its entire width. Head and body lacking standing hairs of any form, the pronotum without a projecting humeral hair. Cephalic dorsum finely superficially reticulate-punctate but the sculpture mostly obscured by the scale-like pilosity. Remainder of body unsculptured and smooth. Ventral spongiform curtain of petiole very broad, visible in dorsal view as it projects laterally beyond the margins of the peduncle. Ventral spongiform lobe of postpetiole massive; in dorsal view projecting farther forward than the anterior margin of the disc.

Type Material
Holotype worker, Gabon: Provo Woleu-Ntem, 31.3 km. 108° ESE Minvoul, 2°04.8'N, 12°24.4'E, 600 m., 7.ii.1998, #1648(14) (B.L. Fisher).

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

 * Bolton, B. 2000. The Ant Tribe Dacetini. Memoirs of the American Entomological Institute 65
 * Fisher B. L. 2004. Diversity patterns of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) along an elevational gradient on Monts Doudou in southwestern Gabon. Memoirs of the California Academy of Sciences 28: 269-286.