Cephalotes umbraculatus (Fabricius, 1804)

Oliveira, Aline Machado, Powell, Scott & Feitosa, Rodrigo Machado, 2021, A taxonomic study of the Brazilian turtle ants (Formicidae: Myrmicinae: Cephalotes), Revista Brasileira de Entomologia 65 (3), No. e 20210028, pp. 1-52 : 45

The umbraculatus species group

( Fig. 53 )

The monotypicumbraculatus group was created by Kempf (1958a). He discussed the position of the species, which shares characters with the angustus and pinelii groups, but is different enough to be separated from them. Kempf’s proposal was corroborated by the morphological and molecular phylogenies (De Andrade and Baroni-Urbani, 1999, see their Fig. 24 ; Priceet al., 2014, 2016, see their Fig. S3 ), both phylogenies recover this species as a monophyletic lineage. The recent molecular phylogenies byPrice et al. (2014, 2016) recovered umbraculatus as a sister group of the clade formed by the angustus , fiebrigi and prodigiosus groups ( Fig. 54 ). Cephalotes umbraculatus is broadly distributed in Central America and north of South America.

Diagnosis: In workers, body with appressed hairs. Dorsal and declivous face of propodeum continuous, not meeting in a distinct propodeal angle, with a variable number of spines. Dorsum of petiole without denticles. Gaster yellowish with a cross-shaped dark macula, anteriorly with lamellarexpansions ( Fig. 2p ). In soldiers, in dorsal view, pronotum crest with pointed edges ( Fig. 3f ).

Brazilian species of umbraculatusgroup

Cephalotes umbraculatus (Fabricius, 1804)

Obsolete combination: Cryptocerus umbraculatus = Cephalotes elegans (Smith, 1853)

Obsolete combination: Cryptocerus elegans = Cephalotes flavomaculatus (Mayr, 1862)

Obsolete combination: Cryptocerus flavomaculatus = Cephalotes quadriguttatus (Guérin-Méneville, 1844) Obsolete combination: Cryptocerus quadriguttatus

Figures

Figure 2 Workers of Cephalotes. A: C. atratus (atratus group) [CASENT0178627]. B: C. depressus (depressus group) [CASENT0173671]. C and F: C. pusillus (pusillus group) [CASENT0173703].D and I:C.pellans (pallens group) [CASENT0173697].E:C.solidus (solidus group).G:C.cordatus (depressus group) [CASENT0922596].H:C.frigidus (angustus group) [UFV-LABECOL-004442]. J: C. basalis (basalis group). K: C. grandinosus (grandinosus group) [CASENT0922544]. L: C. maculatus (pinelii group) [CASENT0909295]. M: C. trichophorus (coffeae group). N and R: C. conspersus (angustus group) [R: CASENT0922530]. O: C. clypeatus (clypeatus group) [CASENT0173669]. P: C. umbraculatus (umbraculatus group) [CASENT0922582]. Q: C. jheringi (fiebrigi group). fle: femoral lamellar expansions. ge: gastral expansions. pd: posterodorsal spine. ple: propodeal lamellar expansions. ps: propodeal spine. pv: posteroventral spine.vle: vertexal lamellar expansions.

Figure 3 Soldiers of Cephalotes. A: C. decoloratus (pallens group) [CASENT0909299]. B: C. angustus (angustus group) [CASENT0909276]. C: C. basalis (basalis group). D and I: C. minutus (pusillus group) [CASENT0173691]. E: C. quadratus (fiebrigi group) [CASENT0173705]. F and P: C. umbraculatus (umbraculatus group) [CASENT0922582]. G and O: C. targionii (angustus group) [CASENT0173708]. H: C. nilpiei (pinelii group). J: C. borgmeieri (depressus group) [CASENT0173664]. K: C. grandinosus (grandinosus group). L: C.pinelii (pinelii group). M: C. jheringi (fiebrigi group). N: C.clypeatus (clypeatus group) [CASENT0173669].

Figure 24 Distribution map of coffeae group in Brazil.Black circle:material examined. Red square: new record.

Figure 53 Distribution map of umbraculatus group in Brazil. Black circles: material examined.Red squares: new records.Blue triangles: records not examined from literature. (Literature source: 12, 13, 23, 36, 45, 68, 72).

Figure54 Themaximum cladecredibility treefrom phylogenetic analysesperformed byPriceet al.(2016) basedonmorphologicalandmoleculardata.The tree has beentrimmedtoinclude onlythose species knownfromBrazil.Thelabelsforthespecies groupsfollowour proposals,including thesynonymies,andtheprevious namesforthesynonymized groupsareshown ingrey.