Xiphopelta
| Xiphopelta | |
|---|---|
| Xiphopelta elisae worker specimen from AntWeb | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Formicidae |
| Subfamily: | Ponerinae |
| Tribe: | Ponerini |
| Alliance: | Odontomachus genus group |
| Genus: | Xiphopelta Forel, 1913 |
| Type species | |
| Ponera arnoldi, now Xiphopelta elisae rotundi Forel, 1913
| |
| Diversity[1] | |
| 11 species | |
Xiphopelta is a genus of ponerine ants containing 11 species found in the Afrotropics. Described as a subgenus in 1913, synonymized in 1973, and revalidated to full generic status by Fisher et al. in 2025, its species were previously placed in the genus Mesoponera by Schmidt & Shattuck in 2014. Its scientific name means "sword-shielded ant" from ancient Greek xíphos + péltā.[2]
Species
Xiphopelta contains 11 valid species as of 2025.[2]
- Xiphopelta ambigua (André, 1890)
- Xiphopelta elisae (Forel, 1891)
- Xiphopelta flavopilosa (Weber, 1942)
- Xiphopelta nimba (Bernard, 1953)
- Xiphopelta novemdentata (Bernard, 1953)
- Xiphopelta picea (Bernard, 1953)
- Xiphopelta scolopax (Emery, 1899)
- Xiphopelta senegalensis (Santschi, 1914)
- Xiphopelta testacea (Bernard, 1953)
- Xiphopelta villiersi (Bernard, 1953)
- Xiphopelta weberi (Bernard, 1953)
References
- ^ Bolton, B. (2025). "Xiphopelta". AntCat. Retrieved 31 December 2025.
- ^ a b Fisher, Brian L.; Branstetter, Michael G.; Blaimer, Bonnie B.; Borowiec, Marek L.; Camacho, Gabriela P.; Doré, Maël; Ward, Philip S.; Longino, John T. (19 December 2025). "A genus-level classification of the ant subfamily Ponerinae (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)". ZooKeys (1264): 281–349. Bibcode:2025ZooK.1264..281F. doi:10.3897/zookeys.1264.173399. PMC 12743250. PMID 41458144.