Axinidris ghanensis

This species is known only from two collections. Nothing is known of its biology, although it is assumed to be arboreal.

Identification
Snelling (2007) - Antennal scape without and pronotum with erect hairs; medial carina present and subacute in profile; distance between spines less than PPW; gastral tergum 2 shiny and sparsely punctate. The most similar species is Axinidris luhya.

Shattuck (1991) - A. ghanensis is similar to Axinidris murielae in sculpturing, head pilosity, the configuration of the propodeal spines and medial carina, and body colour, but differs in lacking erect or suberect hairs on the antennal scapes and in having fewer erect hairs on the pronotum and gastric tergites. It occurs sympatrically with, and is larger than, Axinidris murielae in Ghana. It is approximately the same size as Axinidris murielae from Cameroun.

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Afrotropical Region: Ghana, Uganda.

Castes
Known only from the worker caste.

Nomenclature

 *  ghanensis. Axinidris ghanensis Shattuck, 1991: 114, fig. 35 (w.) GHANA. See also: Snelling, R.R. 2007: 560.

Worker
(n=1). OOD 0.30, EL 0.21, HL 0.83, EW 0.10, HW 0.76, CNW 0.06, CND 0.09, SL 0.66, AL 0.98, PpW 0.34, SW 0.26, CI 0.91, CNI 1.44, REL 0.28, ScI 0.86, SpI 1.42. Pronotum with 2 erect hairs; erect hairs on gastric tergites limited to segment 4.

Head very finely colliculate to imbricate, superimposed with large, widely spaced punctures and very weak scabriculous sculpturing; area near the mandibular insertion with a narrow band of strigulate sculpturing. Numerous erect hairs present from the occipital border to the anterior clypeal margin. Erect and suberect hairs absent from the antennal scapes. Entire pronotum and antero-dorsal region of mesonotum smooth to weakly coriarious; remainder of mesonotum and entire propodeum finely punctate; lateral areas of mesonotum more finely sculptured than propodeum. Pronotum with one pair of erect hairs. Propodeal spiracles as in A.tridens. Medial propodeal carina slightly expanded dorsally, and located posterior of a line drawn between the propodeal spiracles to just anterior of the petiolar insertion. Propodeal spines directed postero-Iaterally, with the outer surfaces concave, the distal ends narrower than the maximum width of the propodeum, and the area between them more or less flat. Erect hairs limited to gastric tergite 4. Body colour reddish brown with the propodeum darker, mandibles and antennae yellowish red, petiole reddish yellow anteriorly and translucent posteriorly, and tarsi yellow.

Type Material
Holotype worker from GHANA: Mampong (P.Room).

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

 * Shattuck S. O. 1991. Revision of the dolichoderine ant genus Axinidris (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Systematic Entomology 16: 105-120.
 * Shattuck S. O. 1994. Taxonomic catalog of the ant subfamilies Aneuretinae and Dolichoderinae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). University of California Publications in Entomology 112: i-xix, 1-241.
 * Snelling, R. R. 2007. A review of the arboreal Afrotropical ant genus Axinidris, pp. 551-579. In Snelling, R. R., B. L. Fisher, and P. S. Ward (eds). Advances in ant systematics (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): homage to E. O. Wilson  50 years of contributions. Memoirs of the American Entomological Institute, 80.