Pristomyrmex cribrarius

Distribution
This taxon was described from Mozambique. It is also found in Tanzania, South Africa and Kenya.

Biology
This ant species was found in a leaf litter sample from very sandy soil.

Nomenclature

 *  cribrarius. Pristomyrmex cribrarius Arnold, 1926: 281, fig. 81 (q.) MOZAMBIQUE. Arnold, 1948: 222 (w.). Combination in Hylidris: Weber, 1952: 17; in Pristomyrmex: Bolton, 1981b: 285. See also: Wang, M. 2003: 419.

Description
Queen: 3.8 mm. Head and petiole dark reddish brown, thorax dark yellowish brown, abdomen black, legs and antennae dark brownish ochreous. Shining, the abdomen very smooth and glabrous. A short, thin, sparse and yellowish pilosity on the head, thorax, petiole, antennae and legs, oblique on the legs, erect elsewhere. Pubescence wanting except on the flagellum. Cheeks, upper surface of the head, promesonotum and scutellum covered all over with wide, round and moderately deep pit-like punctures, which are much wider than the spaces between them. On the thorax some of the pits coalesce, forming longitudinal grooves. Both nodes of the petiole with wide and deep longitudinal sulci at the sides; the dorsum of the 1st node has 3 wide and longitudinal grooves, and the dorsum of the 2nd node has a wide shield-shaped and smooth area in the middle. Head, excluding the mandibles, a little wider than long, barely narrower behind than in front, the sides fairly convex, the posterior margin straight. The clypeus has a median carina somewhat widened and flattened in front, and the anterior margin bears on each side three small teeth. Mandibles smooth with 3 blunt teeth, the basal tooth largest, and separated by a wide space from the other two. Frontal carinae widely divergent, continued backwards as the upper margin of the scrobe. The latter ends at about the level of the posterior margin of the eye and is distinctly defined only in its upper half; its surface is fairly smooth except in front, where it is vertically striate. The scapes are a little longer than the scrobes; 2nd-6th joints of the flagellum wider than long, the 7th as long as wide. Eyes large and convex, placed at about the middle of the sides. Ocelli small and wide apart, smaller than most of the punctures on the head. Mesonotum nearly twice as wide as long, its anterior margin very convex; scutellum transversely oval, vertically truncate posteriorly. Epinotal spines horizontal, feebly divergent, acute and long, quite as long as the interval between them. First node of petiole about as long as wide above, vertically truncate, in front and at the sides, subquadrate or only a little narrower in front than behind. Second node one-third wider than the 1st, one-third wider than long, the shield-shaped area convex from front to back and merging gradually into the smooth anterior face. Abdomen globose, barely longer than wide. All the femora strongly swollen. Dealated. One specimen, on a tree trunk, Amatongas Forest, P.E.A..