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Strumigenys kyidriformis group
Strumigenys kyidriformis group Bolton (2000)
Species
Neotropical
Worker Diagnosis
Mandibles in full-face view and at full closure triangular, serially dentate, the masticatory margins engage throughout their length. Basal margin of mandible exposed at full closure rather than overlapped by the clypeus, with a transverse gap between the basal mandibular margins and anterior clypeal margin. In profile mandible gently down-curved apically. In ventral view outer margin of mandible without an inflected prebasal angle. MI 22.
Dentition. Basally with a dental row of 7 sharply triangular teeth of which 1-3 appear slightly taller than 4-5, which are in turn slightly taller than 6-7; basal tooth follows basal lamella without a diastema. Margin indistinct distal to this but apparently with 4 minute denticles and an enlarged apical tooth, giving a total dental count of 12.
Basal lamella of mandible completely exposed when mandibles fully closed; lamella low and rounded, broad and following the curve of the basal angle; lamella slightly lower than the basal tooth.
Labrum terminates in a pair of narrow triangular lobes.
Clypeus with anterior margin evenly broadly convex, continuous with the posteriorly divergent lateral margins on each side so that the entire margin forms a single arc.
Clypeal dorsum with minute appressed simple hairs, the anterior and lateral margins with very short fine simple hairs that are directed anteriorly.
Preocular carina clearly visible in full-face view.
Ventrolateral margin of head bluntly angular to bluntly rounded between eye and mandibular insertion. Postbuccal impression inconspicuous, almost absent.
Cuticle of side of head within antennal scrobe reticulate-punctate.
Scape short and stout, SI 56; in dorsal view scape of about equal thickness from just distal of the subbasal bend to apex and not dorsoventrally flattened.
Leading edge of scape with minute simple hairs that are decumbent to appressed and curved toward the apex of the scape.
Alitrunk short and compact, in profile the dorsum rounded, the convex outline only weakly interrupted at promesonotal suture and metanotal groove.
Propodeum without trace of teeth but declivity with a narrow lamella that extends from level of spiracle to base.
Spongiform appendages of petiole and postpetiole small. Base of first gastral sternite in profile with spongiform tissue vestigial.
Pilosity. Pronotal humeral hair absent. Dorsolateral margin of head in full-face view without projecting hairs; apicoscrobal hair absent. Dorsal (outer) surfaces of middle and hind tibiae with numerous short decumbent fine hairs that are directed apically.
Notes
A single species from Argentina, kyidriformis, currently occupies this group. Brown (1964) so named the species because of the convergent resemblance of its alitrunk shape to that of members of the Old World mutica group, which then occupied the genus Kyidris, now abandoned (Bolton, 1999).
References
- Bolton, B. 1999. Ant genera of the tribe Dacetonini (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Journal of Natural History. 33:1639-1689.
- Bolton, B. 2000. The ant tribe Dacetini. Memoirs of the American Entomological Institute. 65:1-1028.
- Brown, W. L., Jr. 1964. The ant genus Smithistruma: a first supplement to the World revision (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Transactions of the American Entomological Society. 89:183-200.