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Buniapone
| Buniapone | |
|---|---|
| |
| Buniapone amblyops | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Formicidae |
| Subfamily: | Ponerinae |
| Tribe: | Ponerini |
| Alliance: | Odontomachus genus group |
| Genus: | Buniapone Schmidt & Shattuck, 2014 |
| Type species | |
| Ponera amblyops, now Buniapone amblyops | |
| Diversity | |
| 2 species (Species Checklist, Species by Country)
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Buniapone is restricted to Southern and Southeast Asia. Very little is known about its habits.
Identification
Buniapone is a morphologically distinctive genus and its workers are readily identified by the following combination of characters: long and narrow toothed mandibles, blunt medial clypeal projection, greatly reduced eyes, obsolete metanotal groove, ovoid propodeal spiracles, complex metapleural gland orifice, and squamiform petiole. Superficially, Buniapone most closely resembles Centromyrmex, Promyopias, and certain Neotropical Cryptopone species, but Buniapone has eyes, lacks the anterolateral position of the metapleural gland orifice of Centromyrmex, lacks the linear mandibles of Promyopias, and lacks the small closely approximated frontal lobes and circular propodeal spiracles of Cryptopone. Though Buniapone shares several apomorphies with its sister genus Paltothyreus, they are superficially very different and unlikely to be confused. Myopias also has a blunt medial clypeal projection, but it is much more pronounced than in Buniapone, and Myopias lacks the other characters diagnostic of Buniapone. (Schmidt and Shattuck 2014)
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Keys including this Genus
Distribution
Buniapone is restricted to Southern and Southeast Asia, ranging from southern China to the islands of southern Indonesia and as far west as India.
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 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Total Species | 2841 | 1736 | 3045 | 932 | 835 | 4379 | 1741 | 2862 |
Biology
Virtually nothing is known about the habits of Buniapone, other than that they are hypogeic. They are presumably predatory, though their prey preferences are unknown. One of us (CS) observed large numbers of Buniapone amblyops workers congregated at a palm oil bait sunk into the ground, suggesting that they are not strictly carnivorous and that they may employ some kind of nestmate recruitment to food sources, like their sister genus Paltothyreus. (Schmidt and Shattuck 2014)
Life History Traits
- Mean colony size: ? (Greer et al., 2021)
- Compound colony type: not parasitic (Greer et al., 2021)
- Nest site: hypogaeic (Greer et al., 2021)
- Diet class: predator (Greer et al., 2021)
- Foraging stratum: subterranean/leaf litter (Greer et al., 2021)
- Foraging behaviour: cooperative (Greer et al., 2021)
Castes
Morphology
Worker Morphology
Explore: Show all Worker Morphology data or Search these data. See also a list of all data tables or learn how data is managed.
• Antennal segment count: 12 (Schmidt & Shattuck, 2014) • Total dental count: 7 • Spur formula: metatibial spur formula 1 simple, 1 pectinate (Schmidt & Shattuck, 2014) • Eyes: about 4 ommatidia (Schmidt & Shattuck, 2014) • Pronotal Spines: absent • Mesonotal Spines: absent • Propodeal Spines: absent • Petiolar Spines: absent • Caste: none or weak • Body size: 5.5–6.5 mm • Sting: present • Metaplural Gland: present • Cocoon: present
Phylogeny
| Ponerinae |
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See Phylogeny of Ponerinae for details.
Nomenclature
The following information is derived from Barry Bolton's Online Catalogue of the Ants of the World.
- BUNIAPONE [Ponerinae: Ponerini]
- Buniapone Schmidt & Shattuck, 2014: 81. Type-species: Ponera amblyops, by original designation.
Unless otherwise noted the text for the remainder of this section is reported from the publication that includes the original description.
Description
Worker
Medium-sized (TL 5.5–6.5 mm; Emery, 1887) ants with the standard characters of Ponerini. Mandibles long and narrow, with seven prominent teeth on the masticatory margin, a short basal margin, and a basal groove. Anterior clypeal margin forming a narrow blunt medial projection. Frontal lobes moderately large. Eyes very small (with about four ommatidia), located anterior of head midline. Metanotal groove obsolete. Propodeum narrowed dorsally. Propodeal spiracles ovoid. Metapleural gland orifice opening posterolaterally, with anterior and posterior cuticular flanges. Mesotibae and meso-/metabasitarsi with stout traction setae. Metatibial spur formula (1s, 1p). Petiole squamiform. Helcium projecting from near midheight of anterior face of A3. Girdling constriction between pre- and postsclerites of A4 apparent. Head, gaster and mesosomal dorsum punctate, the sides of the mesosoma longitudinally striate. Head and body with scattered pilosity and a dense pubescence. Color orange.
Queen
Similar to worker, but larger (TL 9.25 mm; Emery, 1889) and winged.
Etymology
Buniapone is named after the Orang Bunian, a race of invisible forest beings in the traditional folklore of Malaysia (where the genus is common), reflecting the hypogeic sylvan habits of these ants. The suffix -pone is derived from the subfamily name Ponerinae.
References
- 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).
- 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).
- Greer, J. A., Moreau, C. S. 2021. Phylogenetic analysis and trait evolution of ant cocoons. Insect Systematics & Evolution 53(1), 60–77 (doi:10.1163/1876312x-bja10008).
- 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.381*Subedi, I.P. 2021. New record of the Ponerine ant Buniapone amblyops (Emery, 1887) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from Nepal. Nepalese Journal of Zoology 5(2): 62–67 (doi:[https://doi.org/10.3126%2Fnjz.v5i2.42034 10.3126/njz.v5i2.42034).
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