bellica species group

Diagnosis. Females of this species group can be defined by a unique combination of characters: vertex unarmed, apex of middle and hind femora truncate, scutellar scale lacking, and T2 with only two integumental spots. Additionally, the genal carina is weak, the mesosoma is not elongate, and the pygidium is broadly ovate.

Included taxon. Traumatomutilla virginalis (Gerstaecker, 1874) and T. bellica (Cresson,1902) .

Distribution. Species of the bellica group have been found so far in Chaco areas of Paraguay and Cerrado areas of Brazil.

Remarks. The two species of this group can be differentiated most readily by coloration and distribution; T. bellica has the head and mesosomal dorsum setae entirely black (Fig. 51) and is known only from the Brazilian Cerrado, while T. virginalis has whitish setae on the propodeum and vertex dorsum (Fig. 56) and its distribution extends into the Paraguayan Chaco.

Apart from the characters mentioned in the species group diagnosis, both species from the bellica group have two apparently exclusive characters: the metafemur is strongly and subacutely projected posterodistally, in contrast to having a truncate metafemur and the intervals of the dorsal mesosomal sculpture form longitudinal sinuous carinae. Some species of the inermis group appear to approximate the first character whilst some species of the trochanterata group appear to approximate the latter. In both of these groups, however, the posterior margin of the head is armed with tubercles, which are lacking in the bellica group.