Ponera

{{Short description|Genus of ants}}

{{For|the genus of orchids|Ponera (plant)}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| image = Ponera sp.jpg

| image_caption = Ponera sp.

| image_upright = 1.15

| display_parents = 2

| taxon = Ponera

| authority = Latreille, 1804

| type_species = Formica coarctata

| type_species_authority = Latreille, 1802

| diversity_link = #Species

| diversity = 66 species

| diversity_ref = {{AntCat|430125|Ponera|2014|accessdate=20 July 2014}}

| synonyms = Pseudocryptopone Wheeler, W.M., 1933

Pteroponera Bernard, 1950

Selenopone Wheeler, W.M., 1933

}}

Ponera is a genus of ponerine ants.

The name is the Latinized form ({{lang|la|Ponēra}}) of the Ancient Greek {{transliteration|grc|ponira}} ({{lang|grc|πονηρά}}, 'wicked, wretched').{{OED|ponerid}}

Description

Workers are very small to small in size (1–4 mm); queen are similar to workers but winged. This genus is very similar to Cryptopone, Hypoponera and Pachycondyla.{{cite web|url=http://anic.ento.csiro.au/ants/biota_details.aspx?BiotaID=39718 |title=Ponera Latreille, 1804, Ants Down Under |publisher=CSIRO Australia|date= |access-date=2010-08-10}}

Biology

Ponera nests contain less than 100 workers in protected places on the ground, most often in the soil or in cracks, rotten wood, under bark or moss on rotten logs.

Distribution

Ponera is known from the Holarctic, Samoa, New Guinea and Australia.

Species

File:Ponera leptocephala Emery 1891 fig 3.jpg
in Sicilian amber]]

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References

{{Reflist|refs=

{{cite journal |last=Schmidt |first=C. A. |last2=Shattuck |first2=S. O. |date=2014 |title=The Higher Classification of the Ant Subfamily Ponerinae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), with a Review of Ponerine Ecology and Behavior |journal=Zootaxa |volume=3817 |issue=1 |pages=1–242 |doi=10.11646/zootaxa.3817.1.1 |pmid=24943802}}

}}