THE ANT GENUS SIMOPELTA 
(HYMENOPTERA: FORMICIDAE) 
By William H. Gotwald, Jr. and William L. Brown, Jr. 
Department of Entomology, Cornell University 
Ithaca, New York 
The taxonomic history of Simopelta (subfamily Ponerinae, tribe 
Ponerini) has been discussed in detail by W. M. Wheeler (1935) 
and by Borgmeier (1950). Borgmeier was the first to describe the 
queen of any species in the genus — that of S. pergandei — which 
he showed deserved to be called “dichthadiiform”, or belonging to a 
particular form of queen caste characterized by extreme reduction 
or loss of eyes, loss of wings, hypertrophy of petiole and gaster, and 
other characters. He explained its “great similarity to certain females 
of Eciton ” by “convergence in its hypogaeic way of life”, a statement 
that is puzzling because, as Father Borgmeier well knows, Eciton 
is not really “hypogaeic” in its habits, at least as compared to the 
majority of ants that spend most of their time on or below the 
ground level. 
At any rate, as we shall show in this paper, the convergence be- 
tween the queens of at least one Simopelta species and certain army 
ants, so discerningly noted by Father Borgmeier, is only one aspect 
of the army-ant or legionary lifeform that two and perhaps all Simo- 
pelta species share with the “true” army ants of subfamily Dorylinae. 
It is the purpose of this contribution to list and key the workers 
of the known species of Simopelta , to describe two new species of the 
genus, and to set forth on the behavior of one species some observa- 
tions, however fragmentary, that will establish that it follows the 
army-ant way of life in important respects. 
Simopelta 
Belonopelta subgenus Simopelta Mann, 1922: 10. Type species: Belonopelta 
(Simopelta) jeckylli, by original designation. 
Simopelta: W. M. Wheeler, 1935 (raised to generic rank). Borgmeier, 
1950 (queen, young larva). G. C. and j. Wheeler, 1957 (young larva). 
The generic diagnosis is basically that of Borgmeier modified and 
augmented according to the new material now available. 
* Manuscript received by the editor December 8, 1966 
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