The genus Hypoponera is a member of the subfamily Ponerinae and the tribe Ponerini. Hypoponera is comprised of about 35 New World species of small to medium-sized ants (ranging from 1-4 mm in length). Hypoponera species have a wide range of habitat preferences, from open grasslands, deep rainforests, disturbed lands, in termite mounds and in the soil of arboreal epiphytes. Outside of these generalizations on natural history, little is known about Hypoponera. We believe this is due to the poor state of the systematics, which is complicated and not well understood. Hypoponera is considered to lack major unifying characters and some species are exceptionally similar to species in other genera of ponerine ants. Hypoponera has the third highest species diversity within the Ponerini yet, has not had extensive treatment. We synthesized data from literature and specimens and present information on the species diversity and distribution of Hypoponera for the species found in North and Central America.