Revision of the Chinese species of the genus Brachyponera Emery, 1900 (Hymenoptera, Formicidae), with a key to the world species of the genus

The species of the ant genus <i>Brachyponera</i> Emery, 1900 are reviewed based on the morphological characters of the worker caste. <i>Brachyponeratianzun</i> (Terayama, 2009) is transferred to <i>Euponera</i> as <i>Euponeratianzun</i> (Terayama, 2009), <b>comb. nov.</b> Four new species, <i>B.paraarcuata</i> <b>sp. nov.</b>, <i>B.xui</i> <b>sp. nov.</b>, <i>B.candida</i> <b>sp. nov.</b>, and <i>B.myops</i> <b>sp. nov.</b>, are described from China based on the worker caste. Phylogenetic trees were constructed for eight known and four new species, and genetic distances were calculated. High-resolution images of <i>B.batak</i> (Yamane, 2007), <i>B.flavipes</i> (Yamane, 2007), <i>B.nakasujii</i> (Yashiro et al., 2010), <i>B.pilidorsalis</i> (Yamane, 2007), <i>B.wallacea</i> (Yamane, 2007), and <i>B.brevidorsa</i> Xu, 1994 are provided. Keys are provided to both the eight species groups and 23 known species of the world based on the worker caste.