Aenictus Shuckard, 1840

Jaitrong, Weeyawat & Yamane, Seiki, 2011, Synopsis of Aenictus species groups and revision of the A. curra x and A. laeviceps groups in the eastern Oriental, Indo-Australian, and Australasian regions (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Aenictinae), Zootaxa 3128, pp. 1-46 : 4

Aenictus Shuckard, 1840

Aenictus Shuckard, 1840: 266 . Type-species: Aenictus ambiguus , by original designation. Based on the male sex. Typhlatta Smith, 1857: 79 . Type-species: Typhlatta laeviceps , by monotypy. Based on the worker caste.

Paraenictus Wheeler, 1929: 27 (as subgenus of Aenictus ). Type-species: Aenictus silvestrii . Based on the worker caste.

Worker diagnosis. For a more extensive description of the worker caste of the genus, see Bolton (1994). Some of the important characteristics are reproduced with slight modification here. Clypeus reduced, narrow from front to back. Antenna 8–10 segmented; antennal socket horizontal, in the plane of transverse axis of head, exposed in fullface view, and located very close to anterior margin of clypeus. Mandible various in shape from triangular, subtriangular to linear. Frontal lobe absent; narrow vertical carinae (sometimes very short) present between the antennal sockets. Eye absent. Promesonotal suture absent; pronotum and mesonotum fused together. Metapleural gland orifice located in lower posterior corner of metapleuron, opening laterally; the orifice concealed behind a ventrally directed cuticular flange. Propodeal lobe present. Metatibial gland present. Waist of two segments, the petiole and postpetiole (= abdominal segments 2 and 3). Petiole sessile to subsessile with tergite and sternite not fused; sternite of petiole with simple posterior margin and simple articulation to postpetiole. Postpetiole with tergosternal fusion; tergite and sternite of the following abdominal segments (= gastral segments 1–4) not fused. Gastral segment 1 with presclerites sharply defined and differentiated from the postsclerites, the former fitting tightly within the narrow posterior end of postpetiole; gastral segment 1 immediately behind the presclerites constricted into a narrow neck. Propodeal spiracle situated high on the side of the sclerite and far forward, not subtended by endophragmal pit or a longitudinal impression; spiracle on side of postpetiole situated at or usually behind the midlength of the segment; gastral spiracles 2–4 (= abdominal spiracles 5–7) shifted backwards, not concealed by the posterior margins of preceding segments and visible without distension of abdomen.