Yantaromyrmex constrictus

AntWiki: The Ants --- Online
Yantaromyrmex constrictus
Temporal range: Bartonian, Middle to Late Eocene Baltic amber, Baltic Sea region
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Dolichoderinae
Tribe: Leptomyrmecini
Genus: Yantaromyrmex
Species: Y. constrictus
Binomial name
Yantaromyrmex constrictus
(Mayr, 1868)

Wheeler 1915i-105 Yantaromyrmex-constrictus.jpg

This species was transferred from Hypoclinea to Bothriomyrmex by Dalla Torre (1893), then to Iridomyrmex by Wheeler (1915b) and finally to Anonychomyrma by Shattuck (1992a), this final treatment being accepted by Dlussky (1997). It should be noted, however, that extant species of Anonychomyrma are restricted to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Australia and the Solomon Islands (Shattuck, 1992a, 1992b; Ward et al., 2010) while this and other fossil species currently placed in Anonychomyrma are well outside this geographic area. The possibility that these species would be better placed in a genus other than Anonychomyrma, probably newly erected specifically for them, cannot be ruled out.

Identification

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).

Castes

Nomenclature

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

  • constrictus. †Hypoclinea constricta Mayr, 1868c: 60, pl. 3, figs. 50, 51 (w.) BALTIC AMBER (Eocene). Combination in Bothriomyrmex: Dalla Torre, 1893: 170; in Iridomyrmex: Wheeler, W.M. 1915h: 88; in Anonychomyrma: Shattuck, 1992a: 13; in Yantaromyrmex: Dlussky & Dubovikoff, 2013: 308.

Description

References