Euponera Forel, 1891

Eguchi, Katsuyuki, Viet, Bui Tuan & Yamane, Seiki, 2014, Generic Synopsis of the Formicidae of Vietnam (Insecta: Hymenoptera), Part II — Cerapachyinae, Aenictinae, Dorylinae, Leptanillinae, Amblyoponinae, Ponerinae, Ectatomminae and Proceratiinae, Zootaxa 3860 (1), pp. 1-46 : 32-33

Euponera Forel, 1891

Taxonomy. Euponera was established as a subgenus of Ponera , and raised to genus by Emery (1901a). It was then synonymized with Pachycondyla by Brown in Bolton (1994), and assigned to the tribe Ponerini ( Bolton 2003) . However, based on a recent molecular phylogenetic analysis ( Schmidt 2013), Schmidt & Shattuck (2014) revived Euponera as an independent genus, and placed it under the Odontomachus genus group of the tribe Ponerini .

Morphology. Workers of Vietnamese species have the following features (see also Schmidt & Shattuck 2014):

Worker monomorphic; head in full-face view subrectangular; preoccipital carina absent dorsally; frontal lobes horizontal, separated from each other just with a longitudinal sulcus; antennal scrobe absent; median portion of clypeus with a median longitudinal ridge; anteromedian margin of clypeus roundly convex, but with a weak median emargination; mandible subtriangular, with ca. 8 teeth on masticatory margin; basal portion of mandible with a distinct pit dorsolaterally; antenna 12-segmented, gradually incrassate from segment III to XII; eye small to moderate in size, located on side of head close to mandibular insertion; mesosoma in lateral view usually with a straight or weakly convex dorsal outline; promesonotal suture completely separating pronotum from mesonotum; metanotal groove absent; mesopleuron separated well from mesonotum and metapleuron with distinct sutures, not divided by a transverse groove; propodeum unarmed; orifice of propodeal spiracle slit-like; propodeal lobe very low or almost absent; apicoventral part of foretibia with a small simple spur behind a large pectinate spur; apicoventral part of mid and hind tibiae with a simple spur in front of a large pectinate spur; outer surface of middle tibia with normal pilosity only; petiole without anterior peduncle; petiolar node squamiform, in lateral view high and relatively thick; subpetiolar process trapezoidal, without an anterior fenestra/fovea and a pair of teeth; girdling constriction between abdominal segments III and IV relatively distinct; abdominal sternite III usually with a distinct anteroventral flange beneath helcium; sting well developed.

Differentiation. The worker of Euponera is somewhat similar to that of the smaller species of Ectomomyrmex , but in the latter the basal portion of mandible lacks a pit dorsolaterally.

Vietnamese species (3 spp.).

E. grandis (Donisthorpe, 1947) . Type locality: Yen Bay, Tonkin [Yen Bai, northern Vietnam]. E. sharpi (Forel, 1901) . Rad (Ha Noi).

E. sp. eg-1 [cf. E pilosior (Wheeler) ] (Tay Yen Tu).

Bionomics. No information.