Buniapone amblyops

Very little 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). Subedi (2021) collected specimens from animal dung on the ground alongside Dolichoderus, Brachyponera, Carebara and Pheidole species, which were most likely foraging in the dung. They were collected from soil under a stone in Singapore (Yong et al. 2017). Brassard et al. (2020) found this species in the soil at the depth of 50 cm, along with Pheidole, Carebara, and Solenopsis within the same quadrat. Bharti et al. (2017) recorded them in the secondary forest, whereas Eguchi et al. (2014) collected them in well-developed forests by digging the ground.

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)

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 based on Regional Taxon Lists
Indo-Australian Region: Borneo, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore. Oriental Region: Bangladesh, India, Thailand, Vietnam. Palaearctic Region: China.

Nomenclature

 * . Ponera amblyops Emery, 1887b: 434 (w.) INDONESIA (Sumatra).
 * Emery, 1889b: 497 (q.); Santschi, 1928h: 122 (m.).
 * Combination in Trapeziopelta: Emery, 1889b: 497;
 * combination in Belonopelta: Emery, 1897d: 553;
 * combination in Pachycondyla (Pseudoponera): Emery, 1900d: 668;
 * combination in Pseudoponera: Bingham, 1903: 92; Emery, 1911d: 87; Santschi, 1928h: 122;
 * combination in Euponera (Pseudoponera): Forel, 1905c: 6;
 * combination in Pachycondyla: Brown, in Bolton, 1995b: 302;
 * combination in Buniapone: Schmidt, C.A. & Shattuck, 2014: 83.
 * Status as species: Emery, 1889b: 497; Dalla Torre, 1893: 43; Emery, 1895k: 461; Forel, 1899d: 320; Emery, 1900d: 668; Bingham, 1903: 92; Forel, 1905c: 6; Emery, 1911d: 87; Forel, 1913k: 8; Viehmeyer, 1916a: 115; Wheeler, W.M. 1919e: 143; Karavaiev, 1925b: 127; Santschi, 1928h: 122; Chapman & Capco, 1951: 74; Radchenko, 1993a: 80; Bolton, 1995b: 302; Xu, 1995b: 104 (in key); Mathew & Tiwari, 2000: 283; Jaitrong & Nabhitabhata, 2005: 30; Zhou & Ran, 2010: 107; Pfeiffer, et al. 2011: 57; Guénard & Dunn, 2012: 60; Bharti, Guénard, et al. 2016: 49.
 * Current subspecies: nominal plus oculatior.

Description
Worker

Bingham (1903): Somewhat silky brownish yellow all over, covered with fairly abundant erect pale hairs, and a tine sericeous golden pubescence, dense on the front of the head and the antennae and legs. Head and thorax very finely and densely punctured, opaque; node of the pedicel as finely but not so closely punctured, somewhat shining. Head emarginate posteriorly; mandibles longitudinally striate; a distinct but very narrow and short impressed line vertically on the front between the antennal carinae; eyes minute, concolorous with the surface of the head, not black. For the rest the characters of the genus.

Length: 6 mm

Queen

Bingham (1903): "Wings hyaline shaded with yellow: for the rest as in the worker" (Forel).

Length: 7 mm

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

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 * Emery, C. "Formiche raccolte da Elio Modigliani in Sumatra, Engano e Mentawei." Annali del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale Giacomo Doria (Genova) (2) 20, no. 40 (1900): 661-722.
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