Sphecomyrminae

†Sphecomyrminae Temporal range: Fossil only
Sphecomyrma freyi
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	†Sphecomyrminae Wilson & Brown, 1967
Diversity
6 fossil genera 26 fossil species

Photo Gallery

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Sphecomyrminae is an extinct subfamily known from Cretaceous fossils found in North America, Europe, and Asia. The subfamily contains a single tribe, †Sphecomyrmini. In addition, the family Armaniidae was recently synonymised with Sphecomyrminae and its genera and species placed within the tribe Sphecomyrmini (Borysenko, 2017). See Armaniidae for a discussion of this proposed change.

Members of the subfamily †Zigrasimeciinae were previously placed in the tribe Zigrasimeciini within this subfamily.

See images of genera within this subfamily

Statistics

Extant Taxa

No living taxa are known from this subfamily.

Fossil Taxa

Fossil Genera	% World Fossil Genera	Valid Fossil Species/Subsp.	% World Fossil Species/Subsp.
6	3.5%	26	2.89%

Fossils known from: Burmese amber, Kachin State, Myanmar (Early Cenomanian, Late Cretaceous), Charentese amber, Aquitaine Basin, France (Late Albian to Early Cenomanian, Cretaceous), Emanra Formation, Khetana River, Khabarovsk, Russian Federation (Turonian, Cretaceous), Foremost Formation amber, Alberta, Canada (Campanian, Late Cretaceous), Ola Formation, Tenkinskii, Russian Federation (Early/Lower Campanian, Cretaceous), Orapa kimberlitic deposits, Botswana (Turonian, Late Cretaceous), Raritan (New Jersey) amber, New Jersey, United States (Turonian, Late Cretaceous), Yantardakh, Siberia, Russia (Santonian, Late Cretaceous).

List of Tribes and Genera

Tribes

Sphecomyrmini

Extant Genera

This subfamily is known only from fossils.

Fossil Genera

Armania • Gerontoformica • Myanmyrma • Orapia • Pseudarmania • Sphecomyrma

Phylogeny

Formicoidea

Camelomecia clade (unplaced to family) Camelomecia Camelosphecia Formicidae               Stem Formicidae Unplaced to subfamily (Baikuris, Cretomyrma, Dlusskyidris) Clade Sphecomyrmines Haidomyrmecinae Sphecomyrminae Zigrasimeciinae Clade Antennoclypeata Brownimeciinae Crown Formicidae               Leptanillinae Martialinae Amblyoponinae - see relationships Apomyrminae Proceratiinae Ponerinae - see relationships Agroecomyrmecinae Paraponerinae Dorylinae - see relationships Aneuretinae Dolichoderinae - see relationships Myrmeciinae - see relationships Pseudomyrmecinae - see relationships Formicinae - see relationships Ectatomminae - see relationships Myrmicinae - see relationships

See Phylogeny of Formicidae for details.

Nomenclature

The following information is derived from Barry Bolton's Online Catalogue of the Ants of the World.

• †SPHECOMYRMINAE [subfamily of Formicidae]
  • †Sphecomyrminae Wilson & Brown, in Wilson, et al. 1967: 6. Type-genus: †Sphecomyrma Wilson & Brown, in Wilson, et al. 1967: 8.

Taxonomic History

• †Sphecomyrminae as family: Dlussky, 1983: 77 [†Sphecomyrmidae]; Dlussky, 1987: 132 [†Sphecomyrmidae]; Dlussky & Fedoseeva, 1988: 77 [†Sphecomyrmidae].
• †Sphecomyrminae as subfamily of Formicidae: Wilson, et al. 1967: 6; Dlussky, 1975: 114; Wilson, 1987: 49; Hölldobler & Wilson, 1990: 9; Bolton, 1994: 184; Dlussky, 1996: 83; Grimaldi, et al. 1997: 7; Dlussky, 1999a: 63; Bolton, 2003: 74, 260; LaPolla, et al. 2013: 618 (in text).
• †Sphecomyrminae as stem-ant subfamily of Formicidae: Ward, 2007a: 555; Borysenko, 2017: 3.

Taxonomic References

• †Sphecomyrminae references: Bolton, 2003: 74, 260 (diagnoses, comments, synopsis); Barden & Grimaldi, 2016: 4 (phylogeny); Borysenko, 2017: 15 (diagnosis).

References

• Borysenko, L.H. 2017. Description of a new genus of primitive ants from Canadian amber, with the study of relationships between stem- and crown-group ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Insecta Mundi 570: 1–57.
• Boudinot, B.E., Perrichot, V., Chaul, J.C.M. 2020. †Camelosphecia gen. nov., lost ant-wasp intermediates from the mid-Cretaceous (Hymenoptera, Formicoidea). ZooKeys 1005, 21–55 (doi:10.3897/zookeys.1005.57629).
• Perfilieva, K.S. 2011. New data on the wing morphology of the Cretaceous Sphecomyrminae ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Paleontological Journal 45: 275–283.