Basiceros scambognathus

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Neotropical Region: Brazil, Venezuela.

Nomenclature

 *  scambognathus. Creightonidris scambognatha Brown, 1949f: 89 (q.) BRAZIL. Feitosa, Brandão & Dietz, 2007: 23 (q.m.). See also: Brown & Kempf, 1960: 178. Combination in Basiceros: Fernández, 2003d: 392; Feitosa, Brandão & Dietz, 2007: 19.

Description
Worker: Size relatively medium (TL between 4,9 and 8,7 mm). Reddish to dark‑brown in color. Integument thick and in general densely sculptured; foveolate over head disc, mesosoma with conspicuous deep to shallowly set punctuation, densely punctate over most or all the gaster. Pilosity conspicuous and bizarre; sub‑decumbent hairs abundant, spatulate, squamiform or plumose; erect abundant or sparse hairsclavate or stout and truncate. Labrum with fine sensorial hairs. Head trapezoidal, triangular or rounded posteriorly; posterior and lateral head borders always visible and clearly distinct, and either rounded or crested, or else combined into curving, continuous or near continuous crest around posterior margin of head. Dorsal surface of head flattened to depressed, slightly convex in some species. Mandibles sub‑porrect, triangular to subtriangular, with straight, opposable, multidenticulate masticatory borders; apical portion from straight to strongly bent ventrally; basal portion flat and smooth to moderately convex and sculptured in frontal view; blade narrowed near insertion, the resulting peduncle either partly exposed or entirely hidden beneath clypeus, interspace between basal mandibular margin and anterior clypeal border present to absent in varying degrees. Eyes relatively well developed (ocular index ca 11). Antennal scape flattened, broad, and lobate at the basal portion; funiculus moderately clavate with 11 segments. Mesosoma usually robust. Metanotal groove present. Propodeal teeth always triangular in lateral view, lamelliform, short, more or less acute, and connected to each other by a transverse carina. Petiole pedunculate and usually with ventral carina bearing one or more teeth. Gastric dorsum with a median longitudinal strip slightly impressed or devoid of pilosity. According to Brown (1974) Basiceros has 5 Malpighian tubules.

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

 * Brown W. L., Jr. 1949. Revision of the ant tribe Dacetini: IV. Some genera properly excluded from the Dacetini, with the establishment of the Basicerotini new tribe. Trans. Am. Entomol. Soc. 75: 83-96.
 * Castilho A. C. C., J. H. C. Delabie, M. I. Marques, J. Adis, and L. F. Mendes. 2007. New Records of the Cryptobiotic ant Creightonidris scambognatha Brown (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from Brazil. Neotropical Entomology 36(1):150-152.
 * Feitosa, R.M., C.R.F. Brandao and B.H. Dietz. 2007. Basiceros scambognathus (Brown, 1949) n. comb., with the first worker and male descriptions, and a revised generic diagnosis (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Myrmicinae). Papeis Avulsos de Zoologia 47(2):31-42
 * Franco W., N. Ladino, J. H. C. Delabie, A. Dejean, J. Orivel, M. Fichaux, S. Groc, M. Leponce, and R. M. Feitosa. 2019. First checklist of the ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of French Guiana. Zootaxa 4674(5): 509-543.
 * Pires de Prado L., R. M. Feitosa, S. Pinzon Triana, J. A. Munoz Gutierrez, G. X. Rousseau, R. Alves Silva, G. M. Siqueira, C. L. Caldas dos Santos, F. Veras Silva, T. Sanches Ranzani da Silva, A. Casadei-Ferreira, R. Rosa da Silva, and J. Andrade-Silva. 2019. An overview of the ant fauna (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of the state of Maranhao, Brazil. Pap. Avulsos Zool. 59: e20195938.
 * Probst R. S., B. D. Wray, C. S. Moreau, and C. R. F. Brandao. 2019. A phylogenetic analysis of the dirt ants, Basiceros (Formicidae: Myrmicinae): inferring life histories through morphological convergence. Insect Systematics and Diversity 3(4): 1–12.
 * Probst da Silva R. 2015. Revisao taxonomica e analise filogenetica de Basiceros Schulz, 1906 (Formicidae, Myrmicinae, Basicerotini). Master Thesis Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de Sao Paulo. 263 pages.