Blepharidatta

A South American group of generalist predators that nest in the ground or in the leaf litter; nests are single, short (up to 20 cm) cylinders excavated in the ground or inside rolled leaves or rotting twigs, with one to 10 ergatoid gynes and up to 450 workers in the biggest colonies. Foragers patrol a roughly circular area around the single nest opening, where they collect live or dead arthropods to feed their larvae. (Brandao, Feitosa & Diniz, 2015.)

Identification
Brown (1953) - Closely related to the species of Wasmannia, differing chiefly in its more elongate head with produced posterior angles and in having a long, low petiolar node.

Kempf (1967) - The accepted relationship (Brown, 1953: 2-3) of Blepharidatta with Wasmannia is not contested by the male sex of the former, although it is quite distinct from the male of the latter (comparison made with males of Wasmannia auropunctata and unidentified males of other species) in the following characters: I. The relatively small size, not divergent from that of the worker; 2. The feebly developed, short, linear mandibles that do not meet when closed; 3. The elongate head which in general shape resembles that of the worker; 4. The antennae with funieular segment II distinctly shorter than scape, III and IV shortest of all, apical (XII) longer than X and XI combined; 5. The not unusually enlarged propodeal spiracle; 6. The presence of a closed discoidal cell in fore wing (cross-vein m-cu present); 7. The apically broadly rounded, spoon-shaped parameres of copulatory organ.

Species richness
Species richness by country based on regional taxon lists (countries with darker colours are more species-rich). View Data



Biology
See Blepharidatta conops

Castes
Ergatoid queens of Blepharidatta conops have large disk shaped heads that can be used for phragmosis.

Nomenclature

 *  BLEPHARIDATTA [Myrmicinae: Blepharidattini]
 * Blepharidatta Wheeler, W.M. 1915e: 484. Type-species: Blepharidatta brasiliensis, by monotypy.
 * Blepharidatta provisional junior synonym of Ochetomyrmex: Brown, 1973b: 179.
 * Blepharidatta valid genus: Kempf, 1975c: 369; Wheeler, G.C. & Wheeler, J. 1991a: 132.

Worker
Small, monomorphic. Mandibles triangular, their apical margins with a few subequal teeth. Clypeus vertical, bicarinate. Frontal area large, frontal groove absent. Eyes moderately large and very convex. Ocelli lacking. Antennae 11-jointed, funiculus with a well-defined 2-jointed clava. Head rather large, with a deep scrobe on each side, extending its full length and bordered above by the frontal carinae which are large, expanded and horizontal, lobulate in front and extending to the posterior corners of the head. The inferior or lateral border of each scrobe is formed by a ridge as long as the frontal carina and running just above the eye. Thorax moderately long and slender, without promesonotal and mesoepinotal sutures; humeri and inferior angles of pronotum dentiform; epinotum armed with a pair of long spines; metasternal angles large, compressed and sharply angular above. Petiole long and slender, pedunculate, with a low, rounded node. Postpetiole small, subglobular. Gaster small, spherical, first segment very large, without ridges, grooves or tubercles; remaining segments very small. Sting vestigial. Legs rather slender; middle and hind tibiae without spurs; claws simple.

Head, thorax, pedicel, and appendages opaque, sculptured; gaster smooth. Upper surface of body beset with long, paired, very sparse, stiff, and blunt hairs.

Male
Kempf (1967) - Males from northeastern Minas Gerais State, Brazil, although not accompanied by workers or females, most certainly represent this hitherto unknown sex for the genus, and help in expanding the generic diagnosis:

Not significantly larger than the respective worker. Head elongate, subtrapezoidal, resembling that of worker. Mandibles feeble, sublinear, apically pointed but edentate, not meeting in front of clypeus when closed. Palpi 3, 2, the labial palpi geniculate. Median apron of clypeus, except the narrow anterior flat margin, bulging, convex in both directions. laterally submarginate. Frontal carinae more or less distinctly prolonged caudad to meet the occipital corner. Eyes huge, bulging. Ocelli relatively small, not protruding. Antennal scape as long as funicular segments I and II combined; funicular segments I, III and IV shorter than the remaining ones, segment XII (apical) longer than X and XI combined. Thorax short, compact; mesonotal scutum with distinct Mayrian furrows (notaulices) which converge caudad but do not meet, continuing parallel to each other and attain separately the posterior border of scutum; parapsidal sutures vestigial; propodeum unarmed, the basal face much shorter than the immarginate declivous face in side-view; inferior propodeal plates little protruding, entirely rounded. Wings: venation largely desclerotized, stigma of fore wing scarcely apparent; radial cell open (distal end of Rs not attaining the anterior margin of wing); discoidal cell very small, usually closed (m-cu present); hind wing with only 2-3 hamuli. Tarsomere I of hind legs longer than the respective tibia. Petiole elongate, pedunculate, clavate; postpetiole parallel-sided in dorsal view, lacking anterior and posterior subpostpetiolar processes. Genitalia (not dissected): apices of protruding parameres broadly rounded, spoon-shaped.