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