New combination and redescription of Brachyponera mesoponeroides Radchenko, 1993 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Ponerinae)

Two paratype workers of Brachyponera mesoponeroidesRadchenko, 1993 were examined. As the result, this species disagreed with Brachyponera but well agreed with Hypoponera in some important diagnostic characters separating the two genera: the apicoventral part of metatibia without a small and simple spur in front of a large and pectinate spur; outer basal portion of mandible without the pit or groove; prora present; subpetiolar process as a rounded lobe, lacking a posterior shelf-like process. Therefore, B. mesoponeroides was transferred to the genus Hypoponera as a new combination Hypoponera mesoponeroides. Then the worker of this species was re-described, and the queen was described for the first time based on the paratype workers and nest series newly collected from Cuc Phuong National Park, Ninh Binh province (type locality), Van Lang district, Lang Son province and Na Hang Natural Reserve, Tuyen Quang province, Vietnam. COI-based DNA barcoding was also conducted for examining the species boundaries of Hypoponera mesoponeroides.