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Genus: Cephalotes

Name Status: Valid Name

Taxonomic Hierarchy:

Subfamily: Myrmicinae Genus: Cephalotes

Taxonomic History (provided by Barry Bolton, 2013)

Extant: 117 species

Fossil: 16 species

Cephalotes Latreille, 1802b: 357 Type-species: Formica atrata, by monotypy. AntCat AntWiki

Taxonomic history

[Type-species not Formica cephalotes, unjustified subsequent designation by Wheeler, 1911g PDF: 160; corrected by Wheeler, 1913a PDF: 78.].

Cephalotes in Myrmicinae, Cryptocerini: Emery, 1914e: 42; Forel, 1917 PDF: 246; Wheeler, 1922: 665; Emery, 1924f PDF: 303; all subsequent authors to 1949, and Dlussky & Fedoseeva, 1988: 79 (anachronism).

Cephalotes in Myrmicinae, Cephalotini: Smith, 1949c PDF: 19; Kempf, 1951 PDF: 105; all subsequent authors except the above.

Cephalotes as junior synonym of Cryptocerus: Fabricius, 1804: 419.

Genus Cephalotes references

Smith, 1853 PDF: 215 (diagnosis); Smith, 1858a PDF: 187 (diagnosis); Roger, 1863b PDF: 38 (catalogue); Mayr, 1863a PDF: 405 (catalogue); Mayr, 1865: 25 (diagnosis); Dalla Torre, 1893: 140 (catalogue); Santschi, 1920f PDF: 149 (species key); Wheeler, 1922: 665 (Cryptocerus subgenera, key); Emery, 1924f PDF: 303 (diagnosis, catalogue); Emery, 1924f PDF: 304 (Zacryptocerus diagnosis, catalogue); Emery, 1924f PDF: 305 (Cryptocerus diagnosis, subgenera key, catalogue); Emery, 1924f PDF: 306 (Cephalotes (Paracryptocerus) diagnosis, catalogue); Emery, 1924f PDF: 308 (Cephalotes (Cryptocerus) diagnosis, catalogue); Emery, 1924f PDF: 311 (Cephalotes (Cyathocephalus) diagnosis, catalogue); Smith, 1947a PDF: 29 (U.S.A. species key); Creighton, 1950a PDF: 296 (North America species key); Kempf, 1951 PDF: 107 (diagnosis, revision, key); Kempf, 1951 PDF: 127 (Eucryptocerus species revision, key); Kempf, 1951 PDF: 134 (Zacryptocerus species revision, key); Kempf, 1951 PDF: 143 (Hypocryptocerus species revision, key); Kempf, 1951 PDF: 153 (Paracryptocerus species revision, key); Kempf, 1952 PDF: 5 (Paracryptocerus pinellii complex revision, key); Kempf, 1958a: 10 (Argentina Paracryptocerus species key); Kempf, 1958a: 64 (Paracryptocerus subgenera, key); Kempf, 1958a: 66 (Paracryptocerus (Harnedia) species revision, key); Kempf, 1958a: 145 (Paracryptocerus (Cyathomyrmex) species revision, key); Kempf, 1960f: 443 (addition to 1958 key); Snelling, 1968a PDF: 9 (Cephalotes wheeleri complex, key); Kempf, 1972b PDF: 75, 107, 120, 175, 259 (Neotropical Cephalotes, Eucryptocerus, Hypocryptocerus, Paracryptocerus, Zacryptocerus catalogues); Kempf, 1974a PDF: 73 (Paracryptocerus pinelii group, key); Smith, 1979: 1402 (North America catalogue); Hölldobler & Wilson, 1990: 13 (synoptic classification); Brandão, 1991 PDF: 337, 343, 383 (catalogue); Bolton, 1994: 105 (synoptic classification); Bolton, 1995a PDF: 1048 (census); Bolton, 1995b: 140, 189, 424 (catalogue); De Andrade & Baroni Urbani, 1999 PDF: 736 (diagnosis, all species revision, key).

Genus Cephalotes references

Overview:

Cephalotes is a very distinctive genus of over 130 species immediately identifiable by the bimorphic or polymorphic worker caste, heavily armored cuticle, flattened head, deeply excavated antennal scrobes capable of receiving the entire antennae, large eyes situated at the apex of the antennal scrobe, and apedunculate petiole. The genus is restricted to the New World tropics and subtropics, with three species extending their range into the southern United States: C. varians (Florida), C. texanus (Texas), C. rowheri (southern Arizona). Cephalotes was revised by De Andrade & Baroni Urbani (1999), who proposed the ecological success of the genus is owed to the following traits: 1) frequent polyandry, 2) a diet based largely on a very abundant resource like pollen, 3) nesting in pre-existing plant cavities, 4) appearance (among most species) of a separate caste of soldiers devoted essentially to the defense of the nest, 5) a high frequency of spontaneous mutation, and 6) a morphology particularly suitable to passive defense.

References:

De Andrade, M.L. & Baroni Urbani, C. (1999) Diversity and adaptation in the ant genus Cephalotes, past and present. Stuttg. Beitr. Naturkd. Ser. B (Geol. Palaontol.), 271, 1-889.