Alfaria Emery, 1896

Camacho, G. P., Franco, W., Branstetter, M. G., Pie, M. R. & Longino, J. T., 2022, UCE Phylogenomics Resolves Major Relationships Among Ectaheteromorph Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Ectatomminae, Heteroponerinae): A New Classification, Insect Systematics and Diversity 6 (1), pp. 1-20 : 10

Alfaria Emery status revived

= Opisthoscyphus Mann new combination

Type Species: Alfaria simulans Emery

Diagnosis (Females): Head subquadrate; occipital lobe usually present; frontal carina broadly expanded laterad; row of stout setae on base of foretarsus opposite to strigil present; promesonotal suture absent to lightly impressed, never interrupting dorsal mesosomal sculpture; petiolar spiracle facing directly ventrad and sunken within a pit; second gastral (IV abdominal) sternite usually strongly reduced, so that the gaster is directed ventrally and anterad.

Species: caelata new combination, falcifera new combination, fieldi new combination, minuta revived combination, petiscapa new combination, piei new combination, simulans revived combination, striolata revived combination, and vriesi new combination (and the junior synonyms soror new combination, carinata revived combination, emeryi revived combination, mus revived combination, panamensis revived combination, pneodonax new combination, scabrosus new combination, and bufonis revived combination).

Distribution: Exclusively Neotropical, from southern Mexico to northern Argentina.

Notes: Alfaria is a very morphologically distinct lineage among the Ectatommini , given the extreme anterior curvature of the gaster in profile. In fact, these ants are usually mistakenly identified as Proceratium Roger, 1863 , due to the impressive convergence in this character. We here resurrect the name Alfaria , firstly proposed by Emery (1896) and synonymized under Gnamptogenys by Brown (1958), to comprise the species previously included in the minuta group of Gnamptogenys sensu Brandão and Lattke (1990) . All Alfaria species can be identified using the work of Camacho et. al. (2020) under the previous combination in Gnamptogenys .