Authors
David Grimaldi, Donat Agosti, James M Carpenter
Publication date
1997
Journal
American Museum Novitates
Volume
3208
Pages
1-43
Publisher
American Museum of Natural History
Description
All Cretaceous records of ants are reviewed, and evidence originally given for their placement is evaluated. Cretaceous Formicoidea preserved in rocks lack preservation of critical ant synapomor-phies like the metapleural gland, which are preserved in specimens in amber. For this reason, the Armaniidae Dlussky, from the Cretaceous of Rus-sia, are placed here as Formicoidea incertae sedis, not in the Formicidae proper. The oldest amber with ants is from New Jersey. Seven complete and partial specimens of For-micidae, recently discovered in Turonian (92 Ma) amber from central New Jersey, are described and discussed. The specimens consist of four males and three workers. One complete and well-pre-served worker is Sphecomyrma freyi Wilson and Brown 1967, known previously from two workers in a piece of Turonian amber from Cliffwood Beach, New Jersey. Well preserved in the new worker are external and even some internal fea-tures of the metapleuralgland-a definitive formicid synapomorphy-which are described in detail for the first time. This specimen is designated as a neotype to replace the disintegrated holotype of this species. One complete male specimen is tentatively assigned to Sphecomyrma, which would be the first known male of the genus. One complete and one partial male, both from the same piece of amber, are a new, plesiomorphic species of Baikuris Dlussky (Baikuris casei, n. sp.), the genus previously known only from upper Cretaceous (Santonian) amber of Taymyr, northern Siberia. Two workers represent a new genus and species of Cretaceous Formicidae, Brownimecia clavata n. gen., n. sp., based on …
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