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Species: Belonopelta deletrix   Mann, 1922 

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Taxonomic History (provided by Barry Bolton, 2023)

Belonopelta (Belonopelta) deletrix Mann, 1922 PDF: 9, fig. 4 (w.) HONDURAS. Neotropic. Primary type information: Type-material: 2 syntype workers. Type-locality: Honduras: Choloma, ii.-iii.1920 (W.M. Mann). Type-depository: USNM. AntCat AntWiki HOL

Taxonomic history

Combination in Belonopelta: Bolton, 1995b: 80.
// Distribution

Distribution:

  Geographic regions (According to curated Geolocale/Taxon lists):
    Americas: Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua
  Biogeographic regions (According to curated Bioregion/Taxon lists):
    Neotropical

Distribution Notes:

Mexico to Costa Rica.

Biology:

Wilson (1955) described the dealate queen and gave details of the habits of B. deletrix in southern Mexico. It makes very small colonies (or colony fragments) of up to 16 workers and a dealate queen with scanty brood, usually or always in rotten wood fragments on the soil in leaf litter. The prey is apparently small, soft-bodied insects; Wilson thought campodeids were favored. Brown (pers. comm.) observed B. deletrix in Costa Rica and Honduras, and confirmed the habitat and small nest populations as seen by Wilson.

Comments:

Longino and Boudinot notes, 9 Nov 2013: Morphology and DNA barcoding data show this to be a complex of cryptic species.

References:

Mann, W. M. 1922. Ants from Honduras and Guatemala. Proc. U.S. Natn. Mus. 61:1-54.

Wilson, E. O. 1955. Ecology and behavior of the ant Belonopelta deletrix Mann (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Psyche 62:82-87.

Taxonomic Treatment (provided by Plazi)

Treatment Citation: Brown, W. L., 1950, Morphological, taxonomic and other notes on ants., Wasmann Journal of Biology 8, pp. 241-250

Belonopelta deletrix Mann.HNS

One worker from Chiapas, soil. Agreeing very well with Mann's description and figure, except that the size is a little larger than Mann's measurements. Mann designated BelonopeltaHNS as nominate subgenus to his new subgenus SimopeltaHNS. Wheeler later separated the two generically by means of abundant characters. It does not seem to have been noticed that B. deletrixHNS has minute lateral spurs beside the larger medial ones on the middle and posterior tibiae. Specimens of Simopelta jeckylli MannHNS, Simopelta williamsi WheelerHNS, and Simopelta manni WheelerHNS all lack such lateral spurs completely, so this lack may afford an additional generic character.

Specimen Habitat Summary

Found most commonly in these habitats: 40 times found in cloud forest, 17 times found in tropical rainforest, 11 times found in tropical wet forest, 12 times found in montane wet forest, 11 times found in 2º wet forest, 10 times found in mesophyll forest, 11 times found in hardwood forest, 10 times found in tropical moist forest, 7 times found in mature wet forest, 6 times found in 2nd growth rainforest, ...

Found most commonly in these microhabitats: 168 times ex sifted leaf litter, 40 times Malaise trap, 7 times Hojarasca, 5 times ex sifted litter, 1 times under stone, 2 times forest litter, 1 times Sobre Vegetacion, 1 times sifted litter (leaf mold, rotten wood), 1 times sifted litter, 1 times nest, 1 times in rotten wood, ...

Collected most commonly using these methods: 85 times MiniWinkler, 62 times MaxiWinkler, 41 times Malaise, 15 times Winkler, 7 times Berlese, 7 times Mini Winkler, 5 times Search, 5 times Berlese/Winkler, 2 times Night MiniWinkler, 1 times suction sampler, 1 times Beating, ...

Elevations: collected from 20 - 2280 meters, 949 meters average

Collect Date Range: collected between 1953-08-01 00:00:00.0 and 2019-06-01 00:00:00.0

Type specimens:



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