Stigmatomma bellii

AntWiki: The Ants --- Online
Stigmatomma bellii
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Amblyoponinae
Genus: Stigmatomma
Species: S. bellii
Binomial name
Stigmatomma bellii
(Forel, 1900)

Amblyopone bellii casent0102187 profile 1.jpg

Amblyopone bellii casent0102187 dorsal 1.jpg

Specimen labels

Photo Gallery

  • Stigmatomma bellii worker from Kerala, India. Photo by Kalesh Sadasivan.
  • Stigmatomma bellii worker from Kerala, India. Photo by Kalesh Sadasivan.
  • Stigmatomma bellii worker from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. Photo by Kalesh Sadasivan.
  • Stigmatomma bellii worker from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. Photo by Kalesh Sadasivan.
  • Stigmatomma bellii worker feeding on a lithobiomorph (rather than the usual geophilomorph) centipede, India. Photo by Kalesh Sadasivan.
  • Stigmatomma bellii worker feeding on a lithobiomorph (rather than the usual geophilomorph) centipede, India. Photo by Kalesh Sadasivan.
  • S.belli workers with pupa in Captive colony. By Dulneth Wijewardana

Identification

  • Hamer et al. (2023), Fig. 12. Head comparison of Stigmatomma nr. quadratum group specimen collected in Hong Kong (A; ANTWEB1010961) to the holotypes of Stigmatomma quadratum (B; CASENT0916797, Flavia Esteves), S. reclinatum (C; CASENT0915649, Harald Bruckner), S. bellii (D; CASENT0102510, April Nobile), S. rothneyi (E; CASENT0102517, April Nobile) and S. crenatum (F; CASENT0104983, April Nobile). Stigmatomma feae holotype (CASENT0102126) not included here. Pictures available from www.antweb.org.
  • Hamer et al. (2023), Fig. 14. Genal tooth shapes, in full face view, across species within the Stigmatomma reclinatum group. Stigmatomma nr. quadratum (A; ANTWEB1010866), Stigmatomma quadratum (B; CASENT0916797, Flavia Esteves), S. reclinatum (C; ZRC_HYM_571.1), S. bellii (D; CASENT0102510, April Nobile), S. rothneyi (E; CASENT0102517, April Nobile) and S. crenatum (F; CASENT0104983, April Nobile). Stigmatomma feae holotype (CASENT0102126) not included here. Pictures available from www.antweb.org.

Keys including this Species

Distribution

Within India, Stigmatomma bellii is known from both the Western Ghats and the Eastern Himalayas (Bharti et al., 2016; Sahanashree et al., 2023).

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: 12.54305556° to 12.54305556°.

 
North
Temperate
North
Subtropical
Tropical South
Subtropical
South
Temperate

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Oriental Region: India (type locality), Sri Lanka.

Distribution based on AntMaps

AntMapLegend.png

Distribution based on AntWeb specimens

Check data from AntWeb

Countries Occupied

Number of countries occupied by this species based on AntWiki Regional Taxon Lists. In general, fewer countries occupied indicates a narrower range, while more countries indicates a more widespread species.
pChart

Estimated Abundance

Relative abundance based on number of AntMaps records per species (this species within the purple bar). Fewer records (to the left) indicates a less abundant/encountered species while more records (to the right) indicates more abundant/encountered species.
pChart

Biology

Castes

Worker

Images from AntWeb

Amblyopone bellii casent0102487 head 1.jpgAmblyopone bellii casent0102487 profile 1.jpgAmblyopone bellii casent0102487 dorsal 1.jpgAmblyopone bellii casent0102487 label 1.jpg
Worker. Specimen code casent0102487. Photographer April Nobile, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences. Owned by MHNG, Geneva, Switzerland.
Amblyopone bellii casent0102510 head 1.jpgAmblyopone bellii casent0102510 profile 1.jpgAmblyopone bellii casent0102510 dorsal 1.jpgAmblyopone bellii casent0102510 label 1.jpg
Holotype of Amblyopone belliiWorker. Specimen code casent0102510. Photographer April Nobile, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences. Owned by MHNG, Geneva, Switzerland.
Amblyopone bellii casent0172186 head 1.jpgAmblyopone bellii casent0172186 profile 1.jpgAmblyopone bellii casent0172186 dorsal 1.jpgAmblyopone bellii casent0172186 label 1.jpg
Worker. Specimen code casent0172186. Photographer April Nobile, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences. Owned by ANIC, Canberra, Australia.

Nomenclature

The following information is derived from Barry Bolton's Online Catalogue of the Ants of the World.

  • bellii. Amblyopone (Stigmatomma) bellii Forel, 1900c: 55 (w.) INDIA (Karnataka).
    • Type-material: syntype workers (number not stated).
    • Type-locality: India: Kanara (Bell).
    • Type-depository: MHNG.
    • Combination in Stigmatomma: Bingham, 1903: 38;
    • combination in Amblyopone: Brown, 1960a: 167;
    • combination in Stigmatomma: Yoshimura & Fisher, 2012a: 19.
    • Status as species: Bingham, 1903: 38; Emery, 1911d: 24; Chapman & Capco, 1951: 24; Brown, 1960a: 167, 193; Bolton, 1995b: 61; Tiwari, 1999: 32; Xu, 2001d: 552 (in key); Bharti & Wachkoo, 2011: 590 (in key); Xu & Chu, 2012: 1179 (in key); Bharti, Guénard, et al. 2016: 18.
    • Distribution: India.

Unless otherwise noted the text for the remainder of this section is reported from the publication that includes the original description.

Description

Forel 1900d. Page 55.
Forel 1900d. Page 56.

Brown (1960) - I have been able to examine and compare directly the types of Stigmatomma rothneyi and bellii, and I find them to differ scarcely at all. Forel's description of bellii is in error on several crucial points. First of all, the bellii types have denticulae on the anterior clypeal margin that are approximately as distinct as in the rothneyi type, and similar in form. The eyes of the rothneyi type are slightly larger (0.22 mm. greatest diam.) than in bellii (0.18 mm. greatest diam.), but not nearly so much so as Forel claims. I count about 70-90 facets in the rothneyi type before me (here designated and labeled as lectotype); though the count is very difficult, I find the two bellii syntypes to have almost as many facets (50-70) as rothneyi. In fact, under the best circumstances of counting, I seriously doubt whether the difference is significant.

The bellii types are slightly more coarsely and quite opaquely sculptured over head, alitrunk, petiole and postpetiole; in the rothneyi type, these areas are very densely punctate and nearly opaque, but many of the punctures do have narrow shining spaces between them, and the postpetiole is more definitely shining. Both of these species have the anterior genal angles bluntly subrectangular, and not projecting. The palpal count for both of the bellii syntypes is maxillary 4; labial 3 (not 2 and 3, as Forel states); the palpi cannot be seen in the rothneyi type. These two species may well be geographical variants; bellii is from Kanara, on the western side of the Peninsula south of Bombay, while rothneyi is from Barraekpore, near Calcutta. From Poona, central Madras Presidency, and Orissa, all on the Indian Peninsula, I have numbers of large males that probably belong to bellii and/or rothneyi. These males have distinctive genitalia and a long, narrow caudal process on the subgenital plate. The whole terminalia most resemble those of a series of large males of another species from Formosa, probably the same as the male doubtfully attributed to bruoii by Forel (1913, Arch. Naturg., 79 (A6):183), but which is more likely a member of the reclinata group.

References

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

  • Basu P. 1994. Ecology of ground foraging ants in a tropical evergreen forest in Western Ghats, India. PhD Thesis, School of ecology and environmental sciences, Pondichery University, India. 155 pages.
  • Basu P. 1997. Seasonal and spatial patterns in ground foraging ants in a rain forest in the Western Ghats, India. Biotropica 29(4): 489-500.
  • Forel A. 1900. Les Formicides de l'Empire des Indes et de Ceylan. Part VI. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 13: 52-65.