Titanomyrma lubei

AntWiki: The Ants --- Online
Titanomyrma lubei
Temporal range: Ypresian, Early Eocene
Green River Formation, Sweetwater County, Wyoming, United States
Holotype of T. lubei rufous hummingbird for scale
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Formiciinae
Genus: Titanomyrma
Species: T. lubei
Binomial name
Titanomyrma lubei
Archibald, Johnson, Mathewes & Greenwood, 2011

Titanomyrma is a fossil genus of giant ant. The latest species to be discovered, Titanomyrma lubei, was described in 2011, when a 49.5 million year old fossilized winged queen ant was found in Wyoming. This fossil is the first body of a giant ant found in the Western Hemisphere. The presence of Titanomyrma in North America is considered to indicate "the first reported cross-Arctic dispersal by a thermophilic insect group".

Identification

Distribution

This taxon was described from Green River Formation, Sweetwater County, Wyoming, United States (Ypresian, Early Eocene).

Castes

Nomenclature

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

  • lubei.Titanomyrma lubei Archibald, Johnson, Mathewes & Greenwood, 2011: 3680, figs. 2, 3a,b (q.) U.S.A (Eocene).

Description

References