Aenictogitini

Brown, W. L., 1975, Contributions toward a reclassification of the Formicidae. V. Ponerinae, tribes Platythyreini, Cerapachyini, Cylindromyrmecini, Acanthostichini, and Aenictogitini., Search: Agriculture; Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station 15, pp. 1-115 : 43

Tribe Aenictogitini

This tribe contains the single genus Aenictogiton , which from the beginning was, and still is, known only from the male caste. This genus, recorded only from central Africa, is one of the few really enigmatic ant taxa. Its workers, if they have been described under another generic name, have not been associated with the males, and it seems likely that they are deeply subterranean or otherwise cryptobiotic in habits, and remain undiscovered. All of the males in collections appear to have been taken at light in or near forested areas from Gabon to Zambia, and particularly in Zaire and northern Angola. While not common in arranged collections, one gets the impression that they are not very rare, either, and it seems likely that many specimens exist in unsorted or unstudied collections made at light in the central African area.

So far as I am aware, a plausible queen, winged or otherwise, is still not known for Aenictogiton . The most likely reason for this lack is that the queen is a wingless ergatoid or dichthadiiform, or at least a form unable to fly to light. Status as a dichthadiiform would be in keeping with its sometime placement in or near the Dorylinae sensu lato and the implications of the name Aenictogiton , all of which derive from the somewhat army-ant-like habitus of the male, described under the generic heading that follows.

Forel and Santschi have described 6 species of Aenictogiton in addition to the type species, A. fossiceps , and these and still other species may be recognizable among the available samples. But a taxonomy of the genus cannot really begin without some knowledge of its workers (if they exist) and queen, and I have felt it advisable to mark time rather than attempt to revise the available male-based species. This means that the taxonomy of Aenictogiton is essentially where Santschi (1924, loc. cit. infra) left it. All I can do here is to list the species so far described and figure the genitalia of 1 species (figs. 84, 85, 139) as a reminder that male terminalic characters may well be worthy of comparative study.