The ants of the genus Myrmica (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) from Baltic and Saxonian amber (Late Eocene)
| Autor: | Alexander Radchenko, G. M. Dlussky, Graham W. Elmes |
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| Rok vydání: | 2007 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Paleontology. 81:1494-1501 |
| ISSN: | 1937-2337 0022-3360 |
| Popis: | In the course of ongoing revision of the ant genus Myrmica Latreille, 1804, we located, in the collections of the Russian and Polish Academies of Sciences, pieces of Baltic Amber (Late Eocene, ca. 40 Ma; earlier this amber was considered to be Oligocene, e.g., see Wheeler, 1915; Larsson, 1978; Bolton, 1995; Dlussky, 1997), that each contained a fossilized specimen of Myrmica . We were also fortunate to be given access to a piece of Saxonian Amber (the same age as Baltic Amber) from the collection of Manfred Kutscher that contained three specimens of Myrmica . Four of the specimens belong to two new species. We describe these below, placing them in context with extant species, and we re-appraise all previously described fossil Myrmica , providing a key to the identification of the five extinct “true” Myrmica species. Until now, seventeen extinct ant species have been ascribed to the genus Myrmica (Heer, 1850, 1867; Mayr, 1868b; Novak, 1878; Meunier, 1915): four species from the Late Eocene and Oligocene (ca. 40–35 Ma) and thirteen from the Miocene (ca. 25 Ma). However, only one of these species, M. longispinosa Mayr, 1868b found in Baltic Amber, indisputably belongs to the genus. All other fossil “ Myrmica ” species belong to other genera. The high number of misidentifications is not surprising because most species were described a long time ago from impressions in rock. Such fossils are very difficult to interpret and identify correctly, even with considerable experience and a good knowledge of recent ant taxonomy. Three species, M. pusilla Heer, 1850, M. duisburgi Mayr, 1868b, and M. rugiceps Heer, 1850 were formally transferred to other genera by Handlirsch (1907), Wheeler (1915) and Assmann (1970) respectively (see also Mayr, 1867; Bolton, 1995), and … |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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