Description of the first Oriental species of the ant genus Xymmer (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Amblyoponinae).

The monotypic ant genus Xymmer Santschi, 1914 was established for X. muticus (Santschi, 1914) which has so far been known only from the West African subregion. The genus is easily distinguishable from the other amblyoponine genera by the anteromedian part of clypeus which is produced as a short rectangular lobe.

Redefinition of the genus Bannapone and description of B. cryptica sp. nov. (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Amblyoponinae).

The ant genus Bannapone was established by Xu in 2000 and has been recognized as one of the rarest ant genera in the world. In the course of our careful examination of Asian species of Stigmatomma, we have found that the following Stigmatomma species share a unique morphological characteristic in mandibular dentition with Bannapone mulanae and B. scrobiceps: Stigmatomma caliginosum (Onoyama, 1999), Stigmatomma fulvida (Terayama, 1987), S.

Phylogeny of epilachna, henosepilachna, and some minor genera of phytophagous ladybird beetles (coleoptera: coccinellidae: coccinellinae: epilachnini), with an analysis of ancestral biogeography and host-plant utilization.

Ladybird beetles in the tribe Epilachnini include notorious crop pests and model species studied intensively in various fields of evolutionary biology. From a combined dataset of mitochondrial (ND2) and nuclear (28S) DNA sequences, we reconstructed the phylogeny of 46 species of Epilachnini from Asia, Africa, America, and the Australian region: 16 species in Epilachna, 24 species in Henosepilachna, and one species each in Adira, Afidenta, Afidentula, Afissula, Chnootriba, and Epiverta. In our phylogenetic trees, both Epilachna and Henosepilachna were reciprocally polyphyletic.

Generic Synopsis of the Formicidae of Vietnam (Insecta: Hymenoptera), Part II--Cerapachyinae, Aenictinae, Dorylinae, Leptanillinae, Amblyoponinae, Ponerinae, Ectatomminae and Proceratiinae.

Of the subfamilies and genera known from Vietnam, the following taxa are treated in this second part of the series entitled "Generic Synopsis of the Formicidae of Vietnam": Cerapachyinae: Cerapachys, Simopone; Aenictinae: Aenictus; Dorylinae: Dorylus; Leptanillinae: Leptanilla, Protanilla; Amblyoponinae: Myopopone, Mystrium, Opamyrma, Prionopelta, Stigmatomma; Ponerinae: Anochetus, Brachyponera, Buniapone, Centromyrmex, Cryptopone, Diacamma, Ectomomyrmex, Euponera, Harpegnathos, Hypoponera, Leptogenys, Mesoponera, Odontomachus, Odontoponera, Parvaponera, Platythyrea, Ponera, Pseudoneoponera; Ectatomminae: Gnamptogenys; Proceratiinae: Discothyrea, Probolomyrmex, Proceratium. For each of these subfamilies we provide keys to genera (when there is more than one genus) known from Vietnam. For each genus we provide a synopsis and a list of Vietnamese species.