A New Species of Cryptopone Emery (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Ponerinae) from Brazil with Observations of this Genus and a Key for New World Species

Abstract

The monophyly of Ponerinae was strongly supported by a detailed molecular phylogenetic study. Within the subfamily, substantial changes were yet done to the taxonomy of several genera, such as Cryptopone Emery, and after phylogenetic and morphological considerations, the genus Cryptopone was revived. Cryptopone is a moderately large genus of pantropical distribution, with 25 described species and subspecies, with its diversity centered mostly in East and Southeast Asia. In the New World, only four species were known until now, Cryptopone gilva (Roger), Cryptopone guianensis (Weber), Cryptopone holmgreni (Wheeler) and Cryptopone mirabilis (Mackay & Mackay). Since the Mackay and Mackay’s revision of 2010 of the genus Pachycondyla which included the species currently attributed to Cryptopone, no new species was added to Cryptopone genus in the New World. Recently an unidentified Cryptopone species was collected in the state of Rondônia, Brazil. The material here described was sampled by manual collection of soil in the Floresta Nacional do Jamari (FLONA Jamari). Four individuals belonging to the worker caste are hereafter described under the name of Cryptopone pauli sp. nov. Currently this ant is known only to a single locality in the state of Rondônia, Brazil. This is also the first record of this genus for that state. We present new records of Cryptopone for the Neotropical Region with some comments on its biology and an updated key to workers of the five species of Cryptopone currently known in the New World.

Keywords

• Amazon
• morphological convergence
• ground-dwelling ants
• genus record
• hypogeic ant