A Neoponera villosa (Fabricius, 1804) Worker Pupa with too Many Legs (Hymenoptera: Formicidae).

Abstract

Several somatic and sexual anomalies such as gynandromorphism and other morphological malformations have been described in ants, but cases of supernumerary legs in natural populations are rare, with only six cases reported to date. Moreover, few cases of abnormalities have been reported for the Ponerinae subfamily, with only three cases of genetic chimeras and five teratological cases worldwide. We report here a new case of teratology in this subfamily, with a seven-legged worker pupa found in a Neoponera villosa colony nesting in an epiphytic tank bromeliad. This is the second case for Mexico of a morphological anomaly in a ponerine ant, but the first report of a teratological case in the subfamily for this country.