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

description: Genus and Species indet. Figure 3.1, 3.2 <i>Description</i>.—Part and counterpart of gyne in dorsal view, head not preserved; body length (without head) 8.7 mm, estimated total body length about 10 mm, mesosoma length 3.3 mm; mesosoma width 1.4 mm, petiole length 1.37 mm, petiole width 1.05 mm. Mesosoma elongate, 2.3 times longer than wide, with nearly parallel sides. Legs comparatively short and thick. Middle tibia with two spurs; first and second segments of middle tarsus both with a pair of long setae. Petiole a little longer than wide, with short anterior peduncle, without free posterior surface, broadly attached to first gastral segment, separated from gaster only by constriction. Second gastral segment a little wider and about as long as first segment. Tip of gaster acute, indicating the probable presence of a sting. Wings fragmentary preserved; wing venation indistinct. <i>Material</i>.—Specimen OU 44898; gyne, dorsoventrally compressed, head not preserved; 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 assignment of the fossil as an amblyoponine ant is based on the construction of the petiole and the general habitus; two features that have been regarded traditionally as reliable for the subfamily Amblyoponinae (Brown, 1960). Genera of Malagasy Amblyoponinae were revised by Yoshimura and Fisher (2012), who reassigned species of <i>Amblyopone</i> sensu lato into <i>Xymmer</i> Santschi, 1914, <i>Amblyopone</i> Erichson, 1842 sensu stricto and <i>Stigmatomma</i> Roger, 1859, based on male morphological characters, which are not applicable to the gyne from Foulden Maar, as are morphological characters of workers (e.g. Brown, 1960; Taylor, 1987). Two extant members of Amblyoponinae are present in the New Zealand fauna: the endemic <i>S</i>. <i>saundersi</i> (Forel, 1892) and the introduced <i>A</i>. <i>australis</i> Erichson, 1842; only gynes of the latter species approach the size of the fossil. In the absence of morphological characters such as the structure of mandibles and wing venation, we assign the fossil to tribe Amblyoponini without placement into an extinct or extant genus. Published fossil Amblyoponinae include a winged male without generic placement from Foulden Maar (Kaulfuss et al., 2014 a), <i>Casaleia inversa</i> (Dlussky, 1981) (Kyrgyzstan, Middle Miocene), <i>C</i>. <i>longiventris</i> (Heer, 1849) (early Miocene, Croatia), <i>Myopopone sinensis</i> Zhang, 1989 (Shanwang, China, early Miocene) and, from the Eocene Messel pit in Germany <i>Stigmatomma groehni</i> (Dlussky, 2009), <i>S</i>. <i>electrinum</i> (Dlussky, 2009), and <i>C</i>. <i>eocenica</i> (Dlussky and Wedmann, 2012). Two of these species, <i>C</i>. <i>eocenica</i> and <i>C</i>. <i>longiventris</i>, were based on gynes, which can by readily distinguished from the gyne described here by a smaller body size and a much shorter and wider gaster (<i>C</i>. <i>eocenica</i>) and a wider petiole and first gastral segment, differing proportions of the gastral segments (in dorsal aspect) and a less pointed tip of the gaster (<i>C</i>. <i>longiventris</i>).
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 page 1045, DOI: 10.1017/jpa.2015.62, http://zenodo.org/record/269989
description: {"references": ["Brown, W. L., 1960, Contribution towards a reclassification of the Formicidae, III, Tribe Amblyoponini (Hymenoptera): Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, v. 122, p. 145 - 230.", "Yoshimura, M., and Fisher, B. L., 2012, A revision of male ants of the Malagasy Amblyoponinae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) with resurrections of the genera Stigmatomma and Xymmer: PLoS ONE, v. 7 (e 33325), 1 - 18.", "Santschi, F., 1914, Formicides de l'Afrique occidentale et australe du voyage de Mr. le Professeur F. Silvestri: Bollettino del Laboratorio di Zoologia Generale e Agraria della Reale Scuola Superiore d'Agricoltura, v. 8, p. 309 - 385.", "Erichson, W. F., 1842, Beitrag zur Insecten-Fauna von Vandiemensland, mit besonderer Berucksichtigung der geographischen Verbreitung der Insecten: Archiv fur Naturgeschichte, v. 8 (1), p. 83 - 287.", "Roger, J., 1859, Beitrage zur Kenntniss der Ameisenfauna der Mittelmeerlander I: Berliner Entomologische Zeitschrift, v. 3, p. 225 - 259.", "Taylor, R. W., 1987, A checklist of the ants of Australia, New Caledonia and New Zealand (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): CSIRO Division of Entomology Report, v. 41, 92 p.", "Forel, A., 1892, Die Ameisen Neu-Seelands: Mitteilungen der Schweizerischen Entomologischen Gesellschaft, v. 8, p. 331 - 343.", "Kaulfuss, U., Harris, A. C., Conran, J. G., and Lee, D. E., 2014 a, An early Miocene ant (subfam. Amblyoponinae) from Foulden Maar: the first fossil Hymenoptera from New Zealand: Alcheringa, v. 38 (doi, p. 10.1080 / 03115518.2014.928181).", "Dlussky, G. M., 1981, Miocene ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) of the USSR, in Vishnjakova, V. N., Dlussky, G. M., and Pritykina, L. N., eds., New fossil insects from the territory of the USSR, Moscow, Nauka Press, Moscow, p. 64 - 83. [in Russian]", "Heer, O., 1849, Die Insektenfauna der Tertiargebilde von Oeningen und von Radoboj in Croatien. Zweiter Theil: Heuschrecken, Florfliegen, Aderflugler, Schmetterlinge und Fliegen, Leipzig, W. Engelmann, 264 p.", "Zhang, J., 1989, Fossil insects from Shangwang, Shandong, China, Jinan, Shandong Science and Technology Publishing House, 459 p.", "Dlussky, G. M., 2009, The ant subfamilies Ponerinae, Cerapachyinae, and Pseudomyrmecinae (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in the late Eocene Ambers of Europe: Paleontological Journal, v. 43 (9), p. 1043 - 1086.", "Dlussky, G. M., and Wedmann, S., 2012, The poneromorph ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae: Amblyoponinae, Ectatomminae, Ponerinae) of Grube Messel, Germany: high biodiversity in the Eocene: Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, v. 10, p. 725 - 753."]}