24 W. A. SANDS 



name arbor um Smeath. should be used to replace latifrons, for the following reasons : 

 (i) The specimens identified by Sjostedt and Silvestri were not from the type locality 

 of N. arborum. N. latifrons has only recently been collected from Sierra Leone for 

 the first time, (ii) N. latifrons is not, in general, an arboreal-nesting species, and is 

 unlikely to be that described by Smeathman. It most commonly occurs in dead 

 logs, at the foot of tree trunks, and in the mounds of other species, such as Cubitermes 

 spp. and Thoracotermes, on the forest floor, (iii) The name N. latifrons is well 

 established and widely used for a species which is probably the most widely distributed 

 in the Ethiopian Region. 



It would seem that in the interests of stability of nomenclature, it is essential to 

 fix the identity of N. arborum by the designation of a Neotype, particularly since 

 another arboreal species, N. lujae closely resembles it in both imago and soldier, and 

 is easily confused with it. It is distinguished in the imago by the more prominent 

 postclypeus ; in the soldier by the lack of bilaterally placed long setae on the 

 vertex, and the less hairy nose tip. In N. fulleri the single imago morphotype has a 

 proportionately shorter hind tibia, and the soldier has a distinctly hairy nose tip, 

 vertex setae, 12 segmented antennae, and an angularly concave profile. N. 

 schoutedeni is separable in both castes by the same characters as N. lujae. The 

 East African species N. infuscatus is closely similar and difficult to distinguish. 

 The imago often has shallow diverging grooves on the frons anterior to the fontanelle, 

 but these are not always well developed. They are absent in N. arborum, in which 

 the $ cerci are shorter than their width at the base, whereas in N. infuscatus they 

 are as long. The soldier of N. infuscatus has usually a more slender nose, with a 

 slightly more hairy tip, and sometimes has setae on the vertex. 



The original species-name arborum of Smeathman was altered in Snyder (1949) 

 to arbor eus, presumably with the object of making it an adjective agreeing with the 

 generic name. The name arborum is however the genitive plural of arbor, giving the 

 meaning " of the trees ", and as such is a valid species name. I have therefore 

 reverted to the use of the original form of the name. 



Neotype. Sierra Leone : Njala (Lat. 8° 6' N., Long. 12 5' W.), 27. i. 1955 

 (W. V. Harris Coll. No. 901). Neotype soldier and other material from same colony 

 in British Museum (Natural History). Morphotype. Nigeria : Western Region, 

 Benin Province, Sobo Plain, Obanokoro, 9. iii. 1957 (W. Wilkinson Coll. No. WW571). 

 Morphotype imagos in British Museum (Natural History). 



Type material. Dahomey : Cotonou, 7.11.1913 (F. Silvestri), syntypes, female 

 imago and soldier, type colony, N. infuscatus var. perfusca (Silvestri), A.M.N.H. 

 (other syntypes in Silvestri Coll., Lab. Zool. Sc. Agr., Portici). 



Gabon : No detailed locality (Aubry-Lecomte) , syntype male imago and soldier, 

 type colony, N. maculiventris (Sjostedt), A.M.N.H., (other syntypes in Naturhist. 

 Riksmus., Stockholm). 



Other Material. Sierra Leone : Kenema, 12-13J.1958 (W. Wilkinson). 



Guinea : Kakoulima (between Conakry and Kindia), 1912 (F. Silvestri), 

 A.M.N.H. ; Nimba Mts., 1957 (M. Lamotte), Inst. Franc. d'Afr. Noire, Dakar. 



