Hagensia peringueyi: the Black Hag ant

PONERINAE

Hagensia peringueyi (Emery, 1899): 
the Black hag ant

Handsome, shiny black ants with a faint golden velvet ‘pile’ particularly on the abdomen; faintly hairy head and thorax. Individuals vary in size from smaller [10mm] to larger [12mm]. Quick moving, they often hunt in ‘packs’ of two or three individuals from small colonies of a few dozen individuals, with ergatoid queens [Wikipedia says: An ergatoid (from Greek ergat-, "worker" + -oid, "like") is a wingless reproductive adult ant, anatomically intermediate in form between workers and winged queens or males.]
These ants may be peripherally involved in myrmecochory, as they tend to carry prey back to their nests rather than eating it in situ. They have powerful stings and jaws and should be handled with care!
The nests are shallow, generally under stones. The species appears to be confined to the Western and Eastern Cape provinces.
This genus used to be lumped with Pachycondyla, but has recently been separated; see
Schmidt, C. A.; Shattuck, S. O. 2014. The Higher Classification of the Ant Subfamily Ponerinae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), with a Review of Ponerine Ecology and Behavior. Zootaxa 3817(1):1-242. PDF 142616
News of the revision is at http://www.myrmecos.net/2014/06/18/

Arnold’s taxonomic description of the species is at
http://antsofafrica.org/ant_species_2012/pachycondyla/pachycondyla_peringueyi/pachycondyla_hagensia_peringueyi_arnold1915.jpg