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Issue: Vol. 3283 No. 1: 30 Apr. 2012
Type: Articles
Published: 2012-04-30
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3283.1.1
Page range: 1–101
Abstract views: 62
PDF downloaded: 26

Taxonomy of the cerapachyine ant genera Simopone Forel, Vicinopone gen. n. and Tanipone gen. n. (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

c/o Department of Entomology, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, U.K
Department of Entomology, California Academy of Sciences, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California 94118, U.S.A
Hymenoptera Taxonomy Cerapachyinae Simopone Vicinopone Tanipone Afrotropical Malagasy diagnoses keys to species

Abstract

Taxonomic studies of three cerapachyine ant genera are presented: the Old World tropical Simopone Forel, the Afrotropi-cal Vicinopone gen. n. and the Malagasy endemic genus Tanipone gen. n. Vicinopone is a monotypic genus, the sole spe-cies of which (conciliatrix) was formerly included in Simopone. Ten species of Tanipone are recognised (aglandula,aversa, cognata, hirsuta, maculata, pilosa, scelesta, subpilosa, varia, zona), all of which are newly described here. Thenumber of species of Simopone is increased from 15 to 38 by the description of 9 new Afrotropical species (amana, brun-nea, dryas, latiscapa, miniflava, occulta, persculpta, rabula, vepres), 13 new Madagascan species (consimilis, dignita,dux, elegans, fera, inculta, merita, nonnihil, rex, sicaria, silens, trita, victrix), and the resurrection of one name (wilburi)from synonymy. Modern diagnoses of the genera are included, together with newly designed keys to the Afrotropical and Malagasy species.

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