Belonopelta

Belonopelta is a small genus (two described species) restricted to the Neotropics. Little is known about their habits, but they are apparently cryptobiotic predators of diplurans and other soft-bodied arthropods.

Identification
Schmidt and Shattuck (2014) - Belonopelta workers are easily differentiated from those of most other ponerine genera by their narrow curved mandibles, which have several long teeth. Emeryopone is quite similar to Belonopelta, but they can be separated by their frontal lobes (very small and closely approximated in Belonopelta, medium sized and mildly separated anteriorly in Emeryopone) and by their body sculpturing and pilosity (pruinose and without upright pilosity in Belonopelta, foveolate with abundant pilosity in Emeryopone). Thaumatomyrmex also has curved mandibles with an attenuated apical tooth, but its teeth are much longer than in Belonopelta and it has much more widely spaced frontal lobes and larger eyes.

Distribution
Belonopelta is restricted to the Neotropics, ranging from southern Mexico to Colombia (Wilson, 1955a; Baroni Urbani, 1975).

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



Biology
Schmidt and Shattuck (2014) - Very little is known about the habits of Belonopelta, as they are rarely collected (Wheeler, 1935). Their vestigial eyes are suggestive of a cryptobiotic lifestyle, and field observations confirm this, as individual workers are found among leaf litter, under logs or in soil (Mann, 1922; Brown, 1950; Longino, 2013), and nests are constructed in rotting wood (Wilson, 1955a). Colonies are small, with roughly 16 or fewer workers and a single dealate queen (Wilson, 1955a; W. L. Brown, pers. comm. cited in Longino, 2013). Records of Belonopelta food preferences are scant, but Wilson (1955a) observed that Belonopelta deletrix workers in captivity readily preyed on diplurans, small geophilid centipedes, and a small cicadellid, but largely ignored large centipedes, termites, beetles (both larvae and adults), moth larvae, isopods, and millipedes. Wilson hypothesized that in nature  B. deletrix is largely a specialist predator of diplurans, and observed that the method of prey capture by B. deletrix is typical for ponerines despite their highly specialized mandibular structure. Wilson (1955a) also observed that B. deletrix workers are very timid and readily flee from non-prey arthropods. The degree to which Wilson’s observations of B. deletrix apply also to Belonopelta attenuata is uncertain.

Nomenclature

 *  BELONOPELTA [Ponerinae: Ponerini]
 * Belonopelta Mayr, 1870a: 374. Type-species: Belonopelta attenuata, by monotypy.
 * Belonopelta senior synonym of Leiopelta: Hölldobler & Wilson: 1990: 10; Bolton, 1994: 164.
 * LEIOPELTA [junior synonym of Belonopelta]
 * Leiopelta Baroni Urbani, 1975b: 309. Type-species: Belonopelta deletrix, by original designation.
 * Leiopelta junior synonym of Belonopelta: Hölldobler & Wilson, 1990: 10; Bolton, 1994: 164; Bolton, 1995b: 33.

Description
Schmidt and Shattuck (2014):

Worker
Small (TL 4–5 mm) ants with the standard characters of Ponerini. Mandibles narrow and curved, with five or six teeth, the apical tooth greatly attenuated, without a distinct basal margin or basal groove. Anterior clypeal margin triangular, sometimes with a prominent tooth medially. Frontal lobes very small and closely approximated. Eyes very small, located anterior of head midline. Metanotal groove shallow or reduced to a simple suture. Propodeum mildly narrowed dorsally. Propodeal spiracles round. Metatibial spur formula (1p). Petiole nodiform, wider than long. Subpetiolar process sometimes with an anterior fenestra. Gaster with a moderate girdling constriction between pre- and postsclerites of A4. Stridulitrum present on pretergite of A4. Head and body shining to pruinose, with scattered small foveae or punctations, very sparse pilosity and a dense short pubescence. Color reddish-brown to nearly black.

Queen
Described for Belonopelta deletrix by Wilson (1955a): similar to worker but slightly larger, alate, with ocelli, larger compound eyes, and the modifications of the thorax typical for alate ponerine queens.

Larva
Described for Belonopelta deletrix by Wheeler & Wheeler (1964).