Genus: Cephalotes

Taxonomic History (provided by Barry Bolton, 2018)

Extant: 119 valid species

Fossil: 16 valid 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 PDF: 419.

Cephalotes in Myrmicinae, Attini: Ward et al., 2015 10.1111/syen.12090 PDF: 17.

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 PDF: 25 (diagnosis); Dalla Torre, 1893 PDF: 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: 736 (diagnosis, all species revision, key); Price et al., 2014 PDF: 244 (phylogeny); Cantone, 2017 PDF: 194 (brief male diagnosis)

Taxon Page Images:

Cephalotes varians. A soldier ant blocks the nest entrance with her head- visible as a broad disk- while a second soldier walks by. Competition for limited nesting sites is fierce, and soldiers prevent other ant species from usurping their territory. Florida Keys, USA.
Image © Alex Wild.

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.

Distribution:

  Geographic regions (According to curated Geolocale/Taxon lists):
    Americas: Argentina, Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Curaçao, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, United States, United States Virgin Islands, Venezuela
  Biogeographic regions (According to curated Bioregion/Taxon lists):
    Nearctic, Neotropical
  Native biogeographic regions (according to species list records):
    Nearctic, Neotropical

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.