Paraponera

Paraponera
P. clavata, or bullet ant, the sole extant member of the subfamily
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Paraponerinae
Emery, 1901
Tribe: Paraponerini
Emery, 1901
Genus: Paraponera
F. Smith, 1858
Type species
Formica clavata
Diversity[1]
2 species

Paraponera is a genus of ants and the only genus in the subfamily Paraponerinae.[2] The name means "near-Ponera".[3]

It consists of two species: the extant Paraponera clavata, also known as a bullet ant, found in the Neotropics, and the very small[4] fossil species Paraponera dieteri known from Dominican amber (Early Miocene; 16-19 million years ago).[5] Bullet ants are so named for the pain caused by their venomous stings. The intensely painful sting is toxic to invertebrates as well as vertebrates and a major component is the neurotoxic peptide poneratoxin.[6]

  1. ^ Bolton, B. (2014). "Paraponera". AntCat. Retrieved 5 July 2014.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference AWParaponera was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Wheeler, George C. (1956). Myrmecological Orthoepy and Onomatology (PDF). University of North Dakota Press. pp. 4, 17.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference BaroniUrbani_1994 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference AWParaponeradieteri was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Aili, Samira R.; Touchard, Axel; Petitclerc, Frédéric; Dejean, Alain; Orivel, Jérôme; Padula, Matthew P.; Escoubas, Pierre; Nicholson, Graham M. (2017). "Combined Peptidomic and Proteomic Analysis of Electrically Stimulated and Manually Dissected Venom from the South American Bullet Ant Paraponera clavata". Journal of Proteome Research. 16 (3): 1339–1351. doi:10.1021/acs.jproteome.6b00948. hdl:10453/123916. PMID 28118015.