Belonopelta

Belonopelta
Belonopelta deletrix
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Ponerinae
Tribe:	Ponerini
Alliance:	Pachycondyla genus group
Genus:	Belonopelta Mayr, 1870
Type species
Belonopelta attenuata
Diversity
2 species (Species Checklist, Species by Country) Belonopelta deletrix Specimen Label
Synonyms
Leiopelta Baroni Urbani, 1975

Evolutionary Relationships

Ponerinae Platythyreini Platythyrea Ponerini Simopelta Belonopelta Thaumatomyrmex Mayaponera Rasopone Neoponera Dinoponera Pachycondyla Diacamma Emeryopone Ponera Ectomomyrmex Cryptopone hartwigi Austroponera Parvaponera Pseudoponera Harpegnathos Hypoponera Centromyrmex Psalidomyrmex Loboponera Boloponera Plectroctena Asphinctopone Leptogenys Myopias Mesoponera melanaria Bothroponera Hagensia Buniapone Paltothyreus Promyopias Pseudoneoponera Streblognathus Brachyponera Cryptopone gilva, testacea Euponera Fisheropone Phrynoponera Anochetus Odontomachus Megaponera Ophthalmopone Mesoponera ambigua Odontoponera

Relationships among genera of the ant subfamily Ponerinae (extant taxa only, except Dolioponera, Feroponera and Iroponera) based on Schmidt & Shattuck (2014) and Longino & Branstetter (2020).

Belonopelta is a small genus (two described species) restricted to the Neotropics. Little is known about their habits, but they are apparently cryptobiotic predators of diplurans and other soft-bodied arthropods.

Identification

Schmidt and Shattuck (2014) - Belonopelta workers are easily differentiated from those of most other ponerine genera by their narrow curved mandibles, which have several long teeth. Emeryopone is quite similar to Belonopelta, but they can be separated by their frontal lobes (very small and closely approximated in Belonopelta, medium sized and mildly separated anteriorly in Emeryopone) and by their body sculpturing and pilosity (pruinose and without upright pilosity in Belonopelta, foveolate with abundant pilosity in Emeryopone). Thaumatomyrmex also has curved mandibles with an attenuated apical tooth, but its teeth are much longer than in Belonopelta and it has much more widely spaced frontal lobes and larger eyes.

See images of species within this genus

Keys including this Genus

• Key to Neotropical Ponerinae genera
• Key to New World Genera of Ponerinae

 

Distribution

Belonopelta is restricted to the Neotropics, ranging from southern Mexico to Colombia (Wilson, 1955a; Baroni Urbani, 1975).

Biology

Schmidt and Shattuck (2014) - Very little is known about the habits of Belonopelta, as they are rarely collected (Wheeler, 1935). Their vestigial eyes are suggestive of a cryptobiotic lifestyle, and field observations confirm this, as individual workers are found among leaf litter, under logs or in soil (Mann, 1922; Brown, 1950; Longino, 2013), and nests are constructed in rotting wood (Wilson, 1955a). Colonies are small, with roughly 16 or fewer workers and a single dealate queen (Wilson, 1955a; W. L. Brown, pers. comm. cited in Longino, 2013). Records of Belonopelta food preferences are scant, but Wilson (1955a) observed that Belonopelta deletrix workers in captivity readily preyed on diplurans, small geophilid centipedes, and a small cicadellid, but largely ignored large centipedes, termites, beetles (both larvae and adults), moth larvae, isopods, and millipedes. Wilson hypothesized that in nature B. deletrix is largely a specialist predator of diplurans, and observed that the method of prey capture by B. deletrix is typical for ponerines despite their highly specialized mandibular structure. Wilson (1955a) also observed that B. deletrix workers are very timid and readily flee from non-prey arthropods. The degree to which Wilson’s observations of B. deletrix apply also to Belonopelta attenuata is uncertain.

Morphology

Worker Morphology

• Antennal segment count: 12 • Antennal club: gradual • Palp formula: 3,3 • Total dental count: 5-6 • Spur formula: 1 pectinate, 1 pectinate • Sting: present

These characters are collated in the Worker Morphology table.

Male Morphology

 • Caste unknown

Nomenclature

The following information is derived from Barry Bolton's Online Catalogue of the Ants of the World.

• BELONOPELTA [Ponerinae: Ponerini]
  • Belonopelta Mayr, 1870a: 374. Type-species: Belonopelta attenuata, by monotypy.
  • Belonopelta senior synonym of Leiopelta: Hölldobler & Wilson: 1990: 10; Bolton, 1994: 164.
• LEIOPELTA [junior synonym of Belonopelta]
  • Leiopelta Baroni Urbani, 1975b: 309. Type-species: Belonopelta deletrix, by original designation.
  • Leiopelta junior synonym of Belonopelta: Hölldobler & Wilson, 1990: 10; Bolton, 1994: 164; Bolton, 1995b: 33.

Unless otherwise noted the text for the remainder of this section is reported from the publication that includes the original description.

Description

Based on Schmidt & Shattuck (2014):

Worker

Small (TL 4–5 mm) ants with the standard characters of Ponerini. Mandibles narrow and curved, with five or six teeth, the apical tooth greatly attenuated, without a distinct basal margin or basal groove. Anterior clypeal margin triangular, sometimes with a prominent tooth medially. Frontal lobes very small and closely approximated. Eyes very small, located anterior of head midline. Metanotal groove shallow or reduced to a simple suture. Propodeum mildly narrowed dorsally. Propodeal spiracles round. Metatibial spur formula (1p). Petiole nodiform, wider than long. Subpetiolar process sometimes with an anterior fenestra. Gaster with a moderate girdling constriction between pre- and postsclerites of A4. Stridulitrum present on pretergite of A4. Head and body shining to pruinose, with scattered small foveae or punctations, very sparse pilosity and a dense short pubescence. Color reddish-brown to nearly black.

Queen

Described for Belonopelta deletrix by Wilson (1955a): similar to worker but slightly larger, alate, with ocelli, larger compound eyes, and the modifications of the thorax typical for alate ponerine queens.

Larva

Described for Belonopelta deletrix by Wheeler & Wheeler (1964).

References

• Ashmead, W. H. 1905c. A skeleton of a new arrangement of the families, subfamilies, tribes and genera of the ants, or the superfamily Formicoidea. Can. Entomol. 37: 381-384 (page 382, Belonopelta in Pachycondylinae, Pachycondylini)
• Baroni Urbani, C. 1975b. Contributo alla conoscenza dei generi Belonopelta Mayr e Leiopelta gen. n. (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Mitt. Schweiz. Entomol. Ges. 48: 295-310 (page 298, Key to species)
• Bolton, B. 2003. Synopsis and Classification of Formicidae. Mem. Am. Entomol. Inst. 71: 370pp (page 160, Belonopelta in Ponerinae, Ponerini)
• Boudinot, B.E., Richter, A.K., Hammel, J.U., Szwedo, J., Bojarski, B., Perrichot, V. 2022. Genomic-phenomic reciprocal illumination: Desyopone hereon gen. et sp. nov., an exceptional Aneuretine-like fossil ant from Ethiopian amber (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Ponerinae). Insects 13(9), 796 (doi:10.3390/insects13090796).
• Cantone S. 2018. Winged Ants, The queen. Dichotomous key to genera of winged female ants in the World. The Wings of Ants: morphological and systematic relationships (self-published).
• Dalla Torre, K. W. von. 1893. Catalogus Hymenopterorum hucusque descriptorum systematicus et synonymicus. Vol. 7. Formicidae (Heterogyna). Leipzig: W. Engelmann, 289 pp. (page 43, Belonopelta in Ponerinae)
• Emery, C. 1895l. Die Gattung Dorylus Fab. und die systematische Eintheilung der Formiciden. Zool. Jahrb. Abt. Syst. Geogr. Biol. Tiere 8: 685-778 (page 767, Belonopelta in Ponerinae, Ponerini)
• Emery, C. 1911e. Hymenoptera. Fam. Formicidae. Subfam. Ponerinae. Genera Insectorum 118: 1-125 (page 87, Belonopelta in Ponerinae, Ponerini [subtribe Ponerini])
• Esteves, F.A., Fisher, B.L. 2021. Corrieopone nouragues gen. nov., sp. nov., a new Ponerinae from French Guiana (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). ZooKeys 1074, 83–173 (doi:10.3897/zookeys.1074.75551).
• Fernandez, F., Guerrero, R.J., Sánchez-Restrepo, A.F. 2021. Sistemática y diversidad de las hormigas neotropicales. Revista Colombiana de Entomología 47, 1–20 (doi:10.25100/socolen.v47i1.11082).
• Forel, A. 1895b. A fauna das formigas do Brazil. Bol. Mus. Para. Hist. Nat. Ethnogr. 1: 89-139 (page 116, Belonopelta in Ponerinae, Ponerini)
• Forel, A. 1917. Cadre synoptique actuel de la faune universelle des fourmis. Bull. Soc. Vaudoise Sci. Nat. 51: 229-253 (page 238, Belonopelta in Ponerinae, Ponerini)
• Hölldobler, B.; Wilson, E. O. 1990. The ants. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, xii + 732 pp. (page 10, Belonopelta senior synonym of Leiopelta)
• Mayr, G. 1870a. Formicidae novogranadenses. Sitzungsber. Kais. Akad. Wiss. Wien Math.-Naturwiss. Cl. Abt. I 61: 370-417 (page 374, Belonopelta as genus)
• 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, 1–242 (doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3817.1.1).
• Wheeler, W. M. 1910b. Ants: their structure, development and behavior. New York: Columbia University Press, xxv + 663 pp. (page 135, Belonopelta in Ponerinae, Ponerini)
• Wheeler, W. M. 1922i. Ants of the American Museum Congo expedition. A contribution to the myrmecology of Africa. VII. Keys to the genera and subgenera of ants. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 45: 631-710 (page 649, Belonopelta in Ponerinae, Ponerini)