Acanthoponera

Acanthoponera
Acantoponera minor worker from Ecuador
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Ectatomminae
Tribe:	Heteroponerini
Genus:	Acanthoponera Mayr, 1862
Type species
Ponera mucronata
Diversity
4 species

Acanthoponera is a Neotropical genus of ants in the subfamily Ectatomminae. Acanthoponera contains six (one is indeterminate, and one is a morphotaxon) rarely collected species and a fifth unnamed species mentioned by Brown (1958) only known from a stray gyne.

Acanthoponera is a genus of ants from the New World, distributed from Mexico to Argentina (approximately). Specimens have been observed in wooded areas.

Identification

Medium size in workers (5-10mm) pale yellow color in its majority, large convex eyes and shallow antennal brooms. The propodeum bears a pair of teeth or spines (long and slender in worker), and the apex of the petiole node occurs dorsocaudally as a thin subconical spine with a more or less sharp point. The tarsal claws are very well developed and each bears not only a strong submedian tooth, but also a prominent narrow lobe resembling a third tooth.

• Count of antennal segments: 12 • Antennal club: 4-5 • Palp formula: 6.4 • Total tooth count: 6-9

Species

• Acanthoponera goeldii Forel, 1912
• Acanthoponera minor (Forel, 1899)
• Acanthoponera mucronata (Roger, 1860)
• Acanthoponera peruviana Brown, 1958

References

• Brown, WL. (1958), "Contributions toward a reclassification of the Formicidae. II. Tribe Ectatommini (Hymenoptera).", Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 118: 173–362
• Ketterl, Jochen; Verhaagh, Manfred (2004), "Acanthoponera mucronata (Roger, 1860) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), first record in Peru and Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, with description of its male", Revista Peruana de Entomología, 44: 65–68

External links

• Media related to Acanthoponera at Wikimedia Commons