Cephalotes basalis
Creators: name: Oliveira, Aline Machado
name: Powell, Scott
name: Feitosa, Rodrigo Machado
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Formicidae
Cephalotes
Cephalotes basalis

description: The basalis species group
(Figs. 19, 20, 21)
The basalis group of De Andradeand Baroni Urbani (1999) includes the complanatus group of Paracryptoceus by Kempf (1951) (C. complanatus, C. cordiae, C. ramiphilus), and two isolated species, C. basalis and C. manni. Additionally, there are five other species that do not occur in Brazil (C. brevispineus, C. cordiventris, C. femoralis, C. inca and C. mompox). Cephalotes manni is morphologically very distinct and can be easilyseparated from all other species in the group, by the combination of dentiform lamellar expansions on pronotum, declivous face of propodeum and anterior face of petiole concave, apices of anterior lamellar expansion of gaster near to postpetiole insertion, and median dorsal projection on hind femora absent. Thus, we transfer C. manni to the monotypicmanni species group, proposed here as discussed in its respective section.
According to the molecular phylogeny (Price et al., 2016, see their Fig. S3), basalis group forms a clade with the exclusively North and Central Americanmultispinosus, wheeleri andtexanus species groups. All species of basalis group recorded for Brazil occur only in the North and Midwest regions (Fig. 21).
Diagnosis: In workers and soldiers, margin of pronotum with lamellar expansions, without denticles or spines. Declivous face of propodeum and anterior face of petiole truncate (Fig. 19 c-d). Hind femora with a median projection dorsally (Fig. 2j). In dorsal view, the anterior lamellarexpansions of the gaster with apices distally directed in relation to the postpetiole insertion.
Brazilian species of basalis group
Cephalotes basalis (Smith, 1876)
Obsolete combination: Cryptocerus basalis = Cephalotes multispinus (Emery, 1890) Obsolete combinations: Cryptocerus cordatus multispinus, Cryptocerus multispinus
Cephalotes complanatus (Guérin-Méneville, 1844) Obsolete combination: Cryptocerus complanatus = Cephalotes angulatus (Smith, 1858) Obsolete combination: Cryptocerus angulatus = Cephalotes multispinus amazonensis (Forel, 1911) Obsolete combination:Cryptocerusmultispinus amazonensis
Cephalotes cordiae (Stitz, 1913) Obsolete combination: Cryptocerus cordiae
Cephalotes ramiphilus (Forel, 1904) Obsolete combination: Cryptoceruscomplanatus ramiphilus
Key to the identification of Brazilian species of the basalis group of Cephalotes based on workers
(Figs. 19 a-f)
1 Indorsal view, propodeum with onepairof spines (Fig.19c)..... C. cordiae
1’ In dorsal view, propodeum with two or more pairs of spines (Fig. 19d)..................................................................................................................2
2 In dorsal view, frontal carinae upturned dorsally above the eyes (Fig. 19a).................................................................................................... C. basalis
2’ In dorsal view, frontal carinae not upturned dorsally above the eyes (Fig. 19b)..................................................................................................................4
3 Declivousfaceof propodeumfinelystriate (Fig.19e)......................... C. ramiphilus
3’ Declivousface of propodeum microalveolate, never striate (Fig. 19f)........................................................................................ C. complanatus Key to the identification of Brazilian species of the basalis group of Cephalotes based on soldiers
(Figs. 20 a-g)
1 In dorsal view, propodeal spines longer than petiolar spines (Fig. 20a).................................................................................................. C. cordiae
1’ In dorsal view, propodeal spines shorter than petiolar spines (Fig. 20b, c).............................................................................................................2
2 In dorsal view, gaster withouttranslucent lamellar anterior expansions (Fig. 20d)..................................................................................... C. complanatus
2’ In dorsal view, gaster with translucent lamellar anterior expansions (Fig. 20e)..................................................................................................................3
3 Metapleura with more than 30 hairs (Fig. 20f)......................... C. basalis
3’ Metapleura with less than 15 hairs (Fig. 20g).................. C. ramiphilus
description: Published as part of Oliveira, Aline Machado, Powell, Scott & Feitosa, Rodrigo Machado, 2021, A taxonomic study of the Brazilian turtle ants (Formicidae: Myrmicinae: Cephalotes), pp. 1-52 in Revista Brasileira de Entomologia 65 (3) on pages 21-22, DOI: 10.1590/1806-9665-RBENT-2021-0028, http://zenodo.org/record/5512220