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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies (Hymenoptera) » Aculeata - Ants, Bees and Stinging Wasps » Ants (Formicoidea) » Ants (Formicidae) » Ponerinae

Subfamily Ponerinae

Classification · Synonyms and other taxonomic changes · Explanation of Names · Numbers · Size · Identification · Range · Habitat · Food · Life Cycle · Remarks · Internet References · Works Cited

Formicidae - dorsal - Ponera pennsylvanica

Rapacious Panther Ant - Pachycondyla harpax

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies)

No Taxon (Aculeata - Ants, Bees and Stinging Wasps)

Superfamily Formicoidea (Ants)

Family Formicidae (Ants)

Subfamily Ponerinae

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

see (1)

Explanation of Names

Ponerinae Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau 1835

see Ponera

Numbers

1400 spp. in ~50 genera total(2)

Size

2.5‒13 mm

Identification

Key to_NA genera(2)

Range

Most tropical/subtropical; Ponera extends to se.Canada, Hypoponera also to se.Canada but only indoors; Pachycondyla chinensis recorded in NY & WI

Habitat

Typically nest in soil, forest litter, or rotting logs.

Food

Predacious. Some are specialist predators, such as the two US Leptogenys spp., which prey on terrestrial isopods, and Gnamptogeys which may be a specialist on certain millipedes.

Life Cycle

Most live in small colonies of a few dozen to ~200 workers. Reproduction is usually by means of winged sexuals mating outside of the nest, and the females founding a new colony in a small nest, from which she occasionally forages for prey for her larvae. Some genera have either reproductive females (Leptogenys) or males (some Hypoponera) wingless, with modified repoduction. See genera for details.

Remarks

Males of some species do not have elbowed antennae and resemble braconid wasps

Internet References

Taxon page(2)

Works Cited

1.	The higher classification of the ant subfamily Ponerinae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), with a review of ponerine ecology & behavior Schmidt C.A., Shattuck S.O. 2014. Zootaxa 3817: 1–242.

2.	AntWiki

Contributed by Eric R. Eaton on 19 October, 2005 - 6:23pm
Additional contributions by Phillip Harpootlian, Bbarnd, Vox Sciurorum, James C. Trager, v belov
Last updated 29 October, 2023 - 8:18pm

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