Aenictus, Shuckard, 1840

Gómez, Kiko, 2022, A revision of the Afrotropical species of the Dorylinae ant genus Aenictus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) based on the worker caste, Belgian Journal of Entomology 124, pp. 1-86 : 59

rotundatus species complex

DIAGNOSIS. With the rotundatus group characteristics and SIL> 57. Promesonotum always rounded and meeting the flat propodeum at an angle.

OVERVIEW. Seven species in this complex. A. congolensis and A. jacki sp. nov. present decumbent to reclinated pilosity while the rest have erect to semierect pilosity. Both can be differentiated via SIL (57–61 for jacki and 68–74 for congolensis). A. nyuyi sp. nov. has consistently longer scapes than the other four species (SIL> 80 against SIL <75).

Aenictus weissi always presents a developed propodeal ridge, even in the minors, and the subpetiolar process is always small and without lamella, while the other three do not present a propodeal ridge, but a thin linear ridge at most (in A. guineensis) and the three present developed subpetiolar processes with developed lamellae.

The rest are hardly differentiable species and need some subtle analysis. A. ugaduwensis sp. nov. is stouter and with square heads while A. guineensis and A. rotundatus can be hard to separate and discriminant analysis can be necessary (details in key and in page 65). Also, A. rotundatus seems to be distributed in Southern and Eastern Africa, while A. guineensis and A. ugaduwensis sp. nov. have been found in Western Africa.