Miomyrmex

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Miomyrmex
Temporal range: Late Eocene
Florissant, Colorado, United States
Miomyrmex impactus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Dolichoderinae
Tribe: Miomyrmecini
Genus: Miomyrmex
Carpenter, 1930
Type species
Formica impacta, now Miomyrmex impactus
Diversity
2 fossil species
(Species Checklist)
Miomyrmex impactus Obverse of holotype no. 2857 queen

There are two fossil species in the genus Miomyrmex, both known from Florissant shale (Oligocene) in the United Sates. At this time Miomyrmex is incertae sedis within the Dolichoderinae.

Identification

Female.- Head of moderate size, longer than broad; posterior and lateral margins quite straight, sides nearly paralledl; mandibles prominent, deeply corrugated, with four or five blunt teeth on the inner margin; anterior margin of clypeus prolonged, but abruptly truncate; posterior margin slightly prolonged backward; eyes large, situated rather high up on the sides, at about the middle line of the head; ocelli small, close together; antennae inserted close to the clypeus, exceedingly short, 12-segmented, the scapes not over one-half the length of the head, the funiculus only a little longer than the scape; propodeum prolonged backward slightly over the petiole; scale of petiole large, more or less erect, nearly cuneiform; forweing with a closed cubital cell and a discoidal cell.

Distribution

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

Castes

Queen, male, worker

Nomenclature

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

  • MIOMYRMEX [Dolichoderinae: †Miomyrmecini]
    • Miomyrmex Carpenter, 1930: 51. Type-species: †Formica impacta, 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 26, Miomyrmex in Dolichoderinae, Dolichoderini)
  • Bolton, B. 1995b. A new general catalogue of the ants of the world. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 504 pp. (page 258, Miomyrmex in Dolichoderinae, Dolichoderini)
  • Bolton, B. 2003. Synopsis and Classification of Formicidae. Mem. Am. Entomol. Inst. 71: 370pp (page 90, Miomyrmex in Dolichoderinae, Dolichoderini)
  • Carpenter, F. M. 1930. The fossil ants of North America. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 70: 1-66 (page 51, Miomyrmex in Dolichoderinae, Miomyrmicini)
  • Hölldobler, B.; Wilson, E. O. 1990. The ants. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, xii + 732 pp. (page 17, Myiomyrmex in Dolichoderinae, Tapinomini)
  • Shattuck, S. O. 1994. Taxonomic catalog of the ant subfamilies Aneuretinae and Dolichoderinae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Univ. Calif. Publ. Entomol. 112:i-xix, 1-241. (page 131, Miomyrmex in Dolichoderinae, Dolichoderini)
  • Ward, P.S., Brady, S.G., Fisher, B.L. & Schultz, T.R. 2010. Phylogeny and biogeography of Dolichoderinae ants: effects of data partitioning and relict taxa on historical inference. Systematic Biology 59: 342-362 [1]