Simopelta

Distribution

The genus is known from central and northern South America, where they are primarily found in mid-elevation moist forests.

Description

Workers are slender, small in size (2.1–4.9 mm), and black to orange in color. Queens are dichthadiiform (wingless and with enlarged gasters) and "morphologically simplified" relative to workers. Males remain unknown.

Species have an army-ant life style, including group predation and nomadism. However, belonging to the tribe Ponerini, they are evidently ponerines and the army-ant like characters are deemed to have evolved through convergent evolution. Compared to other ponerines, colonies are large, consisting of 1,000 to 2,000 individuals.