Pseudoneoponera Donisthorpe, 1943a

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 : 40-41

Pseudoneoponera Donisthorpe, 1943a

Taxonomy. The genus Pseudoneoponera was synonymized with Bothroponera by Wilson (1958) and 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 Pseudoneoponera 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; body densly covered with short standing hairs; head and mesosoma coarsely sculptured, and abdominal tergite III strongly striate longitudinally; head in full-face view subrectangular; preoccipital carina conspicuous dorsally and laterally; frontal lobes horizontal, separated from each other just with a longitudinal sulcus; antennal scrobe absent; median portion of clypeus with a steep anterior face, with a pair of median carinae; anteromedian margin of clypeus convex, sometimes with an indistinct median point; mandible subtriangular, with ca. 8–10 teeth on masticatory margin (teeth often worn away); basal portion of mandible without a circular or near-circular pit or fovea dorsolaterally; antenna 12-segmented, gradually incrassate from segment III to XII; eye moderate in size, located before midlength of side of head in lateral view; mesosoma in lateral view straight or with a weakly convex dorsal outline; promesonotal suture completely separating pronotum from mesonotum; metanotal groove inconspisuous or absent; mesopleuron separated well from mesonotum and metapleuron with distinct sutures, sometimes divided by an inconspicuous transverse groove; propodeum unarmed; orifice of propodeal spiracle slit-like; propodeal lobe almost absent; apicoventral part of foretibia usually 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 in lateral view high and thick, in dorsal view semicircular; its posterodorsal margin with a row of small denticles;subpetiolar process developed, with anteroventral and posteroventral angles; girdling constriction between abdominal segments III and IV distinct; abdominal sternite III usually with a distinct anteroventral flange beneath helcium; sting well developed.

Differentiation. The worker of Pseudoneoponera most closely resembles Bothroponera , and to a lesser extent Ectomomyrmex , but in the latter two genera the posterodorsal margin of petiolar node lacks a row of small denticles, and the abdominal tergite III is not striate longitudinally.

Vietnamese species (2 spp.).

P. insularis (Emery, 1889) . Zry (Cat Tien).

P. rufipes ( Jerdon, 1851) . Au (Ba Be, Chua Yen Tu, Pu Mat, Sa Pa, Van Ban), Rad (Cuc Phuong, nr. Ha Noi, Hoa Binh).

Bionomics. Pseudoneoponera rufipes usually occurs in wooded habitats.