Triglyphothrix, Forel, 1890

Wheeler, W. M., 1922, The ants collected by the American Museum Congo Expedition., Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 45, pp. 39-269 : 195

Triglyphothrix Forel

Small ants closely allied to Tetramorium .

The worker has 12-jointed antennae, the funiculus terminating in a 3-jointed club. Mandibles and clypeus as in Tetramorium . Head with distinct scrobes, often divided by a longitudinal carina for the reception of the folded scape and funiculus. Thorax short and stout, the premesonotal and mesoepinotal sutures nearly or quite obsolete. Epinotum and episterna armed with spines much as in Tetramorium . Petiole pedunculate, its node and especially that of the postpetiole decidedly broader than long. Hairs on the body abundant, soft, erect, trifid or many-branched, covering the surface like a delicate white mould.

Female similar to the worker but larger; anterior wings with one closed cubital cell and an open radial cell.

Male with 10-jointed antennae, the second funicular joint very long, the third shorter than the first. Mesonotum with Mayrian furrows. Petiolar and postpetiolar nodes narrower than in the worker and female, the petiole subpedunculate.

This genus is paleotropical, ranging over the Ethiopian, Indomalayan, and Papuan Regions (Map 29). One Indian species, T. striatidens (Emery), is rapidly spreading to other parts of the world and has been taken in such widely separated localities as Queensland, Formosa, Tunis, Sierra Leone, Seychelles, Barbados, Mexico, Louisiana, and England. In the locality last mentioned it occurs in the hothouses of Kew Gardens.

The species of Triglyphothrix are all very timid, usually curling up and feigning death when touched. They live in the ground. One South African species, T. arnoldi Forel,1 according to Arnold, "is most frequently found in the nests of other ants, apparently in plesiobiotic or cleptobiotic association." He mentions its occurrence in the galleries of two large Ponerinae , Platythyrea lamellosa subspecies longinoda variety rhodesiana Forel and Ophthalmopone berthoudi Forel.