Myrmecorhynchus novaeseelandiae Kaulfuss &amp; Dlussky, 2015, new species
Creators: name: Kaulfuss, Uwe
name: Dlussky, Gennady M.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Formicidae
Myrmecorhynchus
Myrmecorhynchus novaeseelandiae

description: <i>Myrmecorhynchus novaeseelandiae</i> new species Figure 7.1–7.3 <i>Diagnosis</i>.—Male: waist with one segment (petiole). Antennae 13 -segmented, geniculate, scape long, protrudes beyond the occipital margin of the head, all funicular segments longer than thick. Propodeum gradually rounded in side view. Forewing with closed cells 1 + 2 r, 3 r and mcu; closed cell rm absent. Vein sections 5 RS and 4 M with joint start (rs-m lost); cross-vein cu-a displaced to the base of wing. <i>Description</i>.—Part and counterpart of laterally compressed male. Body length about 6 mm, mesosoma length 2.2 mm, head length about 0.75 mm, head width about 0.85 mm. Head rounded, a little wider than long, mandibles presumably long, more than one-third of head length (outline of mandibles not visible). Antennae 13 -segmented, geniculate, scape long, protrudes beyond the occipital margin of the head, all funicular segments longer than thick. Scutum overhangs pronotum. Propodeum gradually rounded in side view. Petiole indistinct. Genital parameres nearly as long as wide, with rounded tip. Forewing 4.8 mm long, with closed cells 1 + 2 r, 3 r and mcu; closed rm absent. Pterostigma well developed. Vein sections 5 RS and 4 M with jointed start (rs-m lost). Cell 3 r 4 times longer than wide. Cell 1 + 2 r nearly three times longer than wide. Cell mcu trapezoid (RS + M appreciably shorter than 1 Cu). Vein 1 RS shorter than 1 M. Cross-vein cu-a displaced to the base of wing; vein section 2 M + Cu longer than 1 Cu and three times as long as cu-a. <i>Etymology</i>.— <i>Novaeseelandiae</i> refers to New Zealand, where this species was once native. <i>Type</i>.— Holotype OU 44569 (part and counterpart); a laterally compressed winged male; deposited in the Department of Geology, University of Otago. <i>Occurrence</i>.—Foulden Maar diatomite, Waipiata Volcanic Field, Otago, New Zealand; early Miocene. <i>Remarks</i>.—The wing venation of the new species is usual among genera of Formicinae. Some members of Dolichoderinae and Myrmicinae have a similar venation, but male representatives of these subfamilies possess antennae with a short scape. The six extant formicine species known from New Zealand are the endemics <i>Prolasius advenus</i> (F. Smith, 1862) and <i>Camponotus</i> (<i>Colobopsis</i>) <i>newsealanicus</i> Donisthorpe, 1940 and the introduced <i>Anoplolepis gracilipes</i> (F. Smith, 1857) and three species of <i>Paratrechina</i> Motschoulsky, 1863 (Brown, 1958 a; Taylor, 1987; Don, 2007). All species of these genera have forewings without a closed cell mcu, so the new species cannot belong to these taxa. Native species of the following 18 formicine genera are known in the extant Australasian fauna: <i>Calomyrmex</i> Emery, 1895 a; <i>Camponotus</i> Mayr, 1861; <i>Echinopla</i> F. Smith, 1857; <i>Opisthopsis</i> Dalla Torre, 1893; <i>Polyrhachis</i> F. Smith, 1857 (tribe Camponotini Forel); <i>Acropyga</i> Roger, 1862; <i>Prolasius</i> Forel, 1892; <i>Stigmacros</i> Forel, 1905; <i>Teratomyrmex</i> McAreavey, 1957 (Lasiini Ashmead); <i>Melophorus</i> Lubbock, 1883 (Melophorini Forel); <i>Myrmecorhynchus</i> Andrè, 1896; <i>Notoncus</i> Emery, 1895 b; <i>Pseudonotoncus</i> Clark, 1934 b (Myrmecorhynchini Wheeler); <i>Notostigma</i> Emery, 1920 (Notostigmatini Bolton); <i>Oecophylla</i> F. Smith, 1860 (Oecophyllini Emery); <i>Paratrechina</i> Motschoulsky, 1863; <i>Plagiolepis</i> Mayr, 1861; and <i>Pseudolasius</i> Emery, 1887 (Plagiolepidini Forel) (Taylor, 1987). Winged <i>Teratomyrmex</i> and <i>Pseudonotoncus</i> are not known. Amongst the remaining genera, the cell mcu is present only in <i>Opisthopsis</i>, <i>Myrmecorhynchus</i> and <i>Notoncus</i>, while wings of representatives of other genera are lacking this cell (Emery, 1925). In <i>Opisthopsis</i>, the cell mcu is either triangulate (<i>O</i>. <i>haddoni</i> Emery, 1893, <i>O</i>. <i>major</i> Forel, 1902) or absent (male of <i>O</i>. <i>respiciens moestus</i> Wheeler, 1918). In <i>Notoncus</i>, the cell mcu is present in gynes but absent in males. Only in <i>Myrmecorhynchus</i> both gynes and males have a trapezoid cell mcu (Clark, 1934 a). Similar wing venations occur in Formicini Latreille (<i>Formica</i> Linnaeus, 1758; <i>Cataglyphis</i> Förster, 1850, etc.) and some Lasiini (<i>Lasius</i> Fabricius, 1804; <i>Acanthomyops</i> Mayr, 1862; <i>Myrmecocystus</i> Wesmael, 1838). However, all representatives of these genera inhabit the Northern Hemisphere, and there are no reasons to suppose that they were present in the Australasian region in the early Miocene. Similar wing venations are also present in <i>Gesomyrmex</i> Mayr, 1868 and <i>Drymomyrmex</i> Wheeler, 1915. The native range of extant <i>Gesomyrmex</i> extends from the highlands of southern Borneo north into western India. In the Eocene, they also lived on the territory of modern Europe (Dlussky et al., 2009). <i>Drymomyrmex</i> is known exclusively from late Eocene Baltic amber (Wheeler, 1915). The new species can be excluded from these genera because of the following differences: males of <i>Gesomyrmex</i> have much larger eyes and very short 8–11 segmented antennae. Only the gynes of <i>Drymomyrmex</i> are known and they possess 11 -segmented antennae. Usually, in all known ants whose females have less than 12 antenna segments, males have less than 13 segments. We therefore consider the new species as a member of the genus <i>Myrmecorhynchus</i>. An additional argument in favor of <i>Myrmecorhynchus</i> is the similar length of mandibles in the new species, whereas males of the majority of other ants exhibit shorter mandibles.
description: Published as part of <i>Uwe Kaulfuss &amp; Gennady M. Dlussky, 2015, Early Miocene Formicidae (Amblyoponinae, Ectatomminae,? Dolichoderinae, Formicinae, and Ponerinae) from the Foulden Maar Fossil Lagerstätte, New Zealand, and their biogeographic relevance, pp. 1043-1055 in Journal of Paleontology 89 (6)</i> on pages 1048-1049, DOI: 10.1017/jpa.2015.62, http://zenodo.org/record/269989
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