To cite this page, please use the following:
· For print: . Accessed
· For web:
Extant: 119 valid species
Fossil: 16 valid species
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 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.
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.
[[ CephalotesHNS]] sp. alw-01.
Central (ALWC).