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Strumigenys zapyx group
Strumigenys zapyx group Bolton (2000)
Species
Malesian-Oriental-East Palaeartic
Worker Diagnosis
Apical fork of mandible of 2 spiniform teeth; no intercalary dentition. A single spiniform preapical tooth present, very near the apicodorsal tooth and only slightly shorter. Mandibles relatively short, MI 38, and extremely strongly curvilinear; in full-face view the mandibles so strongly bowed outwards that together they form almost a circle.
Anterior clypeal margin broadly concave.
Scape not dorsoventrally flattened, short and stout, SI 55.
Apical antennomere not constricted basally.
Dorsolateral margins of head migrated toward midline so that in full-face view entire concavity of scrobe and entirety of ventrolateral margins are fully visible. Dorsolateral margins parallel from frontal lobes to level of eye, then strongly divergent; head relatively very broad, CI 95.
Ventrolateral margin of head with a deeply concave preocular excavation that continues as a vertical trench up the side of the head in front of the eye but does not form a notch in the upper scrobe margin. Preocular excavation also continued onto ventral surface of head as a broad shallow impression. With head in profile ventral outline without a postbuccal groove.
Propodeal declivity with a broad conspicuous lamella, the posterior (free) margin of which is convex.
Spongiform appendages absent from petiole both ventrally and laterally; petiolar lateral lobe replaced in part by fine dense pilosity. Spongiform lobes of postpetiole both present, the tissue very dense and finely meshed.
Pilosity. Ground-pilosity fine and simple, conspicuous on leading edge of scape, cephalic dorsum promesonotum and waist segments. Apicoscrobal hair short and simple. Erect fine simple hairs present on leading edge of scape, posterior half of cephalic dorsum, promesonotum, waist segments and first gastral tergite. Pronotal humeral hair simple. Dorsal (outer) surfaces of middle and hind basitarsi each with a single very long fine erect hair.
Sculpture. Absent; entire body smooth except for basigastral costulae and minute pits from which principal hairs arise. ==Notes==
Notes
This group is known from a single specimen of the minute species Strumigenys zapyx. The group diagnosis above is therefore also the description of the holotype; only a few additional data are appended below.
The species is very odd in a number of ways and should not be confused with any other Strumigenys of the region. The strongly bowed mandibles, peculiarly modified broad head-capsule and lack of spongiform lobes on the petiole, coupled with small size, lack of sculpture and distinctive pilosity, should render this oddity immediately recognisable.
References
- Bolton, B. 2000. The ant tribe Dacetini. Memoirs of the American Entomological Institute. 65:1-1028.