Odontomachus Latreille

Wheeler, W. M., 1922, The ants collected by the American Museum Congo Expedition., Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 45, pp. 39-269 : 99

Odontomachus Latreille

Medium-sized or large ants closely resembling Anochetus .

In the worker, however, the antennal foveae are confluent, being united by a depression of the front behind the frontal carinae, and there is a welt or swelling which extends out obliquely from the eye and separates the antennal fossa from a depression, equally oblique and very pronounced on the side of the head. Both the apical and subapical teeth of the mandibles acute, the preapical truncated or acute, according to the species; the inner border of the mandibles usually minutely and serrately toothed. Maxillary palpi 4-jointed, labial palpi 3-jointed. Eyes always well developed. Petiole surmounted by a conical node usually terminating in a spine which is inclined backward.

Female winged, with large eyes and ocelli, but in other respects like the worker.

Male with the head of the ordinary shape and with very large eyes and ocelli; mandibles very small; maxillary palpi 6-jointed. Antennae as in Anochetus . Petiole ordinarily with a pointed or conical node, but without terminal spine. Postpetiole separated from the succeeding segment by a rather pronounced constriction. Pygidium terminating in a spine. Claws simple.

Odontomachus is a tropicopolitan genus with apparently two centers of distribution, one in the Neotropical, the other in the Indonesian and Australian Regions (Map 17). One species, O. haematoda , represented by numerous subspecies and varieties, is found in all the wanner regions of the globe, even in the Southern United States, though not in the Mediterranean Region. The species all nest in small colonies in the ground or in rotten wood and the workers of some of the species are very aggressive and sting severely. They are able to leap backward a distance of several inches by suddenly closing their divaricated mandibles against any hard body that happens to be in the environment. The genus is poorly represented in Africa.