Archiponera

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Archiponera
Temporal range: Late Eocene
Florissant, Colorado, United States
Archiponera wheeleri
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Ponerinae
Tribe: Ponerini
Genus: Archiponera
Carpenter, 1930
Type species
Archiponera wheeleri
Diversity
1 fossil species
(Species Checklist)

There is only a single species in this genus found in Florissant shale (Oligocene) from Colorado, USA.

Identification

Worker. - Head large, with convex sides and broadly rounded posterior angles; mandibles small, linear; clypeus large, anterior margin with a median incision, posterior margin with a large median lobe; eyes small, situated very high up on the sides of the head, a little posterior of the middle line of the head; ocelli absent; antennae long and slender, 12-segmented; petiole short but high, cuneiform; gaster small, globular, the first two segments of moderate size, the others short and compressed.

Male. - Slender; petiole long, with a low scale; forewing with two cubital cells, the first intercubitus joining the cubitus at a point much above the junction of the latter with the recurrent vein; second intercubitus far apical of the termination of the first intercubitus.

Distribution

This taxon is known from Florissant, Colorado, United States (Late Eocene).

Castes

Worker, male.

Nomenclature

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

  • ARCHIPONERA [Ponerinae: Ponerini]
    • Archiponera Carpenter, 1930: 27. Type-species: †Archiponera wheeleri, by original designation.


References

  • Barden, P. 2017. Fossil ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): ancient diversity and the rise of modern lineages. Myrmecological News 24: 1-30.
  • Bolton, B. 1994. Identification guide to the ant genera of the world. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 222 pp. (page 164, Archiponera in Ponerinae, Ponerini)
  • Bolton, B. 1995b. A new general catalogue of the ants of the world. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 504 pp. (page 75, Archiponera in Ponerinae, Ponerini)
  • Bolton, B. 2003. Synopsis and Classification of Formicidae. Mem. Am. Entomol. Inst. 71: 370pp (page 172, Archiponera in Ponerinae, incertae sedis in Ponerini)
  • Carpenter, F. M. 1930. The fossil ants of North America. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 70: 1-66 (page 27, Archiponera as genus; in Ponerinae, Ponerini)
  • Dlussky, G. M.; Fedoseeva, E. B. 1988. Origin and early stages of evolution in ants. Pp. 70-144 in: Ponomarenko, A. G. (ed.) Cretaceous biocenotic crisis and insect evolution. Moskva: Nauka, 232 pp. (page 78, Archiponera in Ponerinae, Archiponerini)
  • Hölldobler, B.; Wilson, E. O. 1990. The ants. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, xii + 732 pp. (page 10, Archiponera in Ponerinae, Ponerini)
  • Wheeler, W. M. 1930h. A new Emeryella from Panama. Proc. N. Engl. Zool. Club 12: 9-13 (page 13, Archiponera in Ponerinae, Ectatommini (in text))