Prenolepis henschei

†Prenolepis henschei Temporal range: Bartonian, Middle to Late Eocene K Pa Eo Ol Mi Pl Baltic amber, Baltic Sea region
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Formicinae
Tribe:	Lasiini
Genus:	Prenolepis
Species:	†P. henschei
Binomial name
†Prenolepis henschei Mayr, 1868

This is the only known fossil species of Prenolepis.

Photo Gallery

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  Male from Baltic amber. Photo by Artur Michalski.
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  Male from Baltic amber. Photo by Artur Michalski.
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  Male from Baltic amber. Photo by Artur Michalski.
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  Male from Baltic amber. Photo by Artur Michalski.
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  The fossil nematode, Heydenius formicinus, emerging from a male Prenolepis henschei in Baltic amber (Poinar, 2012, Fig. 3).

Distribution

This taxon was described from Baltic amber (Bartonian, Middle to Late Eocene) and is also known from Bitterfeld amber (Bartonian, Middle to Late Eocene), Danish-Scandinavian amber (Bartonian, Middle to Late Eocene) and Rovno amber (Priabonian, Late Eocene) (Perkovsky, 2016).

Biology

This species is a host for the nematode Heydenius formicinus (a parasite) in Baltic amber (Poinar, 2002) (Baltic amber fossil).

Nomenclature

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

• †henschei. †Prenolepis henschei Mayr, 1868c: 34, pl. 1, figs. 14-17 (w.m.) BALTIC AMBER (Eocene). Wheeler, W.M. 1915h: 118 (q.). See also: LaPolla & Dlussky, 2010: 265.

References

• LaPolla, J.S. & Dlussky, G.M. 2010. Review of fossil Prenolepis genus-group species. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 112: 258-273.
• Mayr, G. 1868c. Die Ameisen des baltischen Bernsteins. Beitr. Naturkd. Preuss. 1: 1-102 (page 34, pl. 1, figs. 14-17 worker, male described)
• Perkovsky, E.E. 2016. Tropical and Holoarctic ants in late Eocene ambers. Vestnik zoologii 50(2): 111–122 (doi:10.1515/vzoo-2016-0014).
• Poinar, G. 2002. First fossil record of nematode parasitism of ants; a 40 million year tale. Parasitology 125, 457–459.
• van Elst, T., Eriksson, T.H., Gadau, J., Johnson, R.A., Rabeling, C., Taylor, J.E., Borowiec, M.L. 2021. Comprehensive phylogeny of Myrmecocystus honey ants highlights cryptic diversity and infers evolution during aridification of the American Southwest. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 155, 107036 (doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2020.107036).
• Wheeler, W.M. 1915i. The ants of the Baltic Amber. Schriften der Physikalisch-Ökonomischen Gesellschaft zu Königsberg 55: 1-142. (page 118, queen described)
• Williams, J.L. 2022. Description of Prenolepis rinpoche sp. nov. from Nepal, with discussion of Asian Prenolepis species biogeography. Asian Myrmecology 15, e015008 (doi:10.20362/am.015008).