Belonopelta

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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)

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Belonopelta deletrix

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Specimen Label

Synonyms

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.

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Keys including this Genus

 

Distribution

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

Distribution and Richness based on AntMaps

Species by Region

Number of species within biogeographic regions, along with the total number of species for each region.

Afrotropical Region Australasian Region Indo-Australian Region Malagasy Region Nearctic Region Neotropical Region Oriental Region Palaearctic Region
Species 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0
Total Species 2840 1735 3042 932 835 4378 1740 2862

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.

Castes

Morphology

Worker Morphology

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

Male Morphology

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 • Caste unknown

Phylogeny

Ponerinae

Platythyrea  (40 species, 6 fossil species)

Pachycondyla group
⊞(show genera)
Ponera group
⊞(show genera)

Harpegnathos  (13 species, 0 fossil species)

Hypoponera  (177 species, 1 fossil species)

Plectroctena group
⊞(show genera)
Odontomachus group
⊞(show taxa)

See Phylogeny of Ponerinae for details.

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