Genus: Hypoponera

Name Status: Valid Name

Taxonomic Hierarchy:

Subfamily: Ponerinae Genus: Hypoponera

Taxonomic History (provided by Barry Bolton, 2013)

Extant: 148 species, 29 subspecies

Fossil: 1 species

Hypoponera Santschi, 1938b PDF: 79 [as subgenus of Ponera] Type-species: Ponera abeillei, by original designation. AntCat AntWiki

Taxonomic history

Hypoponera in Ponerinae, Ponerini: Donisthorpe, 1943g: 652; all subsequent authors.

Hypoponera as subgenus of Ponera: Santschi, 1938b PDF: 79.

Hypoponera as genus: Taylor, 1967a PDF: 9; all subsequent authors.

Genus Hypoponera references

[References prior to 1967, see under PONERA.]

Taylor, 1967a PDF: 9 (Hypoponera diagnosis, discussion); Kempf, 1972b PDF: 121 (Neotropical catalogue); Alayo, 1974: 7 (Cuba species key); Kutter, 1977c: 24 (Switzerland species key); Arnol'di & Dlussky, 1978: 524 (former European U.S.S.R. species key); Smith, 1979: 1342 (North America catalogue); Taylor & Brown, 1985: 31 (Australia catalogue); Taylor, 1987a PDF: 29 (Australia, New Caledonia & New Zealand checklists); Agosti & Collingwood, 1987b PDF: 265 (Balkans species key); Morisita, Kubota, et al. 1989: 25 (Japan species key); Dlussky, Soyunov & Zabelin, 1990 PDF: 176 (Turkmenistan species key); Brandão, 1991 PDF: 347 (Neotropical catalogue); Atanasov & Dlussky, 1992: 69 (Bulgaria species key); Bolton, 1994: 164 (synoptic classification); Bolton, 1995a PDF: 1050 (census); Bolton, 1995b: 213 (catalogue); Wu & Wang, 1995a: 40 (China species key); Collingwood & Agosti, 1996 PDF: 311 (Saudi Arabia species key); Kim, Kim & Kim K, 1998: 148 (Korea species key); Shattuck, 1999: 187 (Australia synopsis); Bolton, 2003 PDF: 162 (synopsis); Terayama, 2009 PDF: 113 (Taiwan species key); Heterick, 2009 PDF: 133 (south-western Australia species key); Bolton & Fisher, 2011 PDF: 17, 23 (Afrotropical and West Palaearctic, all species revision, keys)

Genus Hypoponera references

[References prior to 1967, see under PONERA.]

Biology:

These are small, cryptic ants, nesting in soil or wood. The workers are predators on small arthropods, but they are seldom seen foraging above ground.

Identification:

Worker: frontal lobes contiguous, not separated by a conspicuous posterior extension of the clypeus; eyes reduced or absent; hind tibia with a single spur; petiole attached near lower margin of abdominal segment 3; subpetiolar process a simple lobe, lacking sharp posteroventral teeth or angles.