Belonopelta deletrix Mann 1922

Wilson (1955) described the dealate queen and gave details of the habits of B. deletrix in southern Mexico. It makes very small colonies (or colony fragments) of up to 16 workers and a dealate queen with scanty brood, usually or always in rotten wood fragments on the soil in leaf litter. The prey is apparently small, soft-bodied insects; Wilson thought campodeids were favored. Brown (pers. comm.) observed B. deletrix in Costa Rica and Honduras, and confirmed the habitat and small nest populations as seen by Wilson.

Mexico to Costa Rica.

Belonopelta deletrix Mann, 1922 PDF: 9, fig. 4 (w.) HONDURAS. Neotropic. AntCat AntWiki HOL

Taxonomic history

Wilson, 1955b PDF: 82 (q.); Wheeler & Wheeler, 1964b PDF: 452 (l.).Combination in Leiopelta: Baroni Urbani, 1975b PDF: 309.Combination in Belonopelta: Bolton, 1995b: 80.

One worker from Chiapas, soil. Agreeing very well with Mann's description and figure, except that the size is a little larger than Mann's measurements. Mann designated Belonopelta as nominate subgenus to his new subgenusSimopelta . Wheeler later separated the two generically by means of abundant characters. It does not seem to have been noticed that B. deletrix has minute lateral spurs beside the larger medial ones on the middle and posterior tibiae. Specimens of Simopelta jeckylli Mann , Simopelta williamsi Wheeler , and Simopelta manni Wheeler all lack such lateral spurs completely, so this lack may afford an additional generic character.