|
''Avitomyrmex'' is an extinct genus of bulldog ants in the subfamily Myrmeciinae which contains three described species. The genus was described in 2006 from Ypresian stage (Early Eocene) deposits of British Columbia, Canada. Almost all the specimens collected are queens, with an exception of a single fossilised worker. These ants are large, and the eyes are also large and well developed; a sting is present in one species. The behaviour of these ants may have been similar to extant Myrmeciinae ants, such as foraging solitarily for arthropod prey and never leaving pheromone trails to food sources. ''Avitomyrmex'' has not been assigned to any tribe, instead generally being regarded as ''incertae sedis'' within Myrmeciinae. However, its identity as an ant has been challenged, although it is undoubtedly a hymenopteran insect. ==History and classification== ''Avitomyrmex'' is an extinct genus of ants with three described species. Fossils of ''Avitomyrmex'', along with other extinct Myrmeciinae ants were first studied and described by Bruce Archibald, Stefan Cover and Corrie Moreau of the Museum of Comparative Zoology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. They published their 2006 description of the genus and species in an ''Annals of the Entomological Society of America'' journal article. The genus name is a combination of the Latin "''avitus''" meaning "ancient" or "grandfatherly" and the Greek ''myrmex'', meaning "ant". Included with the genus description, the paper contained the description of ''Avitomyrmex mastax'', ''Avitomyrmex systenus'', and the type species ''Avitomyrmex elongatus''. These fossil species date back to the Middle Ypresian. Archibald and colleagues originally classified ''Avitomyrmex'' as ''incertae sedis'' (Latin for "of uncertain placement") within the ant subfamily Myrmeciinae, as the specimens are unable to be properly identified. In 2008, however, Cesare Baroni Urbani of the University of Basel, Switzerland, noted that no specimen in this genus allows a proper examination of the apomorphy (key diagnostic traits) of the subfamilial or familial characters. While Baroni Urbani excludes ''Avitomyrmex'' from Myrmeciinae and classifies it as ''incertae sedis'' in Hymenoptera, the morphological characters and wings show the specimens are undoubtedly a hymenopteran insect. A 2012 report by Russian palaeoentomologist Gennady M. Dlussky of the Moscow State University describing new myrmecines accepted the classification of Archibald and colleagues without mentioning the comments of Baroni Urbani. The following cladograms generated by Archibald and colleagues show two possible phylogenetic positions of ''Avitomyrmex'' among some ants of the subfamily Myrmeciinae; the cladogram on the right included three additional extinct genera compared to that on the left. It is suggested that ''Avitomyrmex'' may be closely related to other extinct Myrmeciinae ants such as ''Macabeemyrma'' and ''Ypresiomyrma'', as well as the extant ''Nothomyrmecia macrops''. } }} | align="left" width="50%"| }} }} |} 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Avitomyrmex」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|