page_title: Nothomyrmecia
section_title: Naming
hierarchical_section_title: Nothomyrmecia / Taxonomy / Naming
caption_attribution_description: English: Label view of ant Nothomyrmecia macrops specimen casent0172002.
context_page_description: Nothomyrmecia, also known as the dinosaur ant or dawn ant, is a rare genus of ants consisting of a single species, Nothomyrmecia macrops. These ants live in South Australia, nesting in old-growth mallee woodland and Eucalyptus woodland. The full distribution of Nothomyrmecia has never been assessed, and it is unknown how widespread the species truly is; its potential range may be wider if it does favour old-growth mallee woodland. Possible threats to its survival include habitat destruction and climate change. Nothomyrmecia is most active when it is cold because workers encounter fewer competitors and predators such as Camponotus and Iridomyrmex, and it also increases hunting success. Thus, the increase of temperature may prevent them from foraging and very few areas would be suitable for the ant to live in. As a result, the IUCN lists the ant as Critically Endangered.
  As a medium-sized ant, Nothomyrmecia measures 9.7–11 mm. Workers are monomorphic, showing little morphological differentiation among one another. Mature colonies are very small, with only 50 to 100 individuals in each nest.
context_section_description: In 1934 entomologist John S. Clark published a formal description of Nothomyrmecia macrops as a new species and within a completely new genus and tribe (Nothomyrmecii) of the Ponerinae. He did so because the two specimens (which then became the syntypes) bore no resemblance to any ant species he knew of, but they did share similar morphological characteristics with the extinct genus Prionomyrmex. Clark notes that the head and mandibles of Nothomyrmecia and Prionomyrmex are somewhat similar, but the two can be distinguished by the appearance of the node (a segment between the mesosoma and gaster). In 1951, Clark proposed the new ant subfamily Nothomyrmeciinae for his Nothomyrmecia, based on morphological differences with other ponerine ants. This proposal was rejected by American entomologist William Brown Jr., who placed it in the subfamily Myrmeciinae with Myrmecia and Prionomyrmex, under the tribe Nothomyrmeciini. Its distant relationship with extant ants was confirmed after its rediscovery, and its placement within the Formicidae was accepted by most scientists until the late 1980s. The single waist node led scientists to believe that Nothomyrmecia should be separate from Myrmecia and retained Clark's original proposal. This proposal would place the ant into its own subfamily, despite many familiar morphological characteristics between the two genera. This separation from Myrmecia was retained until 2000.
  In 2000, entomologist Cesare Baroni Urbani described a new Baltic fossil Prionomyrmex species (P. janzeni). After examining specimens of Nothomyrmecia, Baroni Urbani stated that his new species and N. macrops were so morphologically similar that they belonged to the same genus. He proposed that the name Prionomyrmex should replace the name Nothomyrmecia (which would then be just a synonym), and also that the subfamily Nothomyrmeciinae should be called Prionomyrmeciinae.
  In 2003, Russian palaeoentomologists G. M. Dlussky and E. B. Perfilieva separated Nothomyrmecia from Prionomyrmex on the basis of the fusion of an abdominal segment. In the same year, American entomologists P. S. Ward and S. G. Brady reached the same conclusion as Dlussky and Perfilieva and provided strong support for the monophyly of Prionomyrmex. Ward and Brady also transferred both taxa as distinct genera in the older subfamily Myrmeciinae under the tribe Prionomyrmecini. In 2005 and 2008, Baroni Urbani suggested further evidence in favour of his former interpretation as opposed to Ward and Brady's. This view is not supported in subsequent relevant papers, which continue to use the classification of Ward and Brady, rejecting that of Baroni Urbani.
  The ant is commonly known as the dinosaur ant, dawn ant, or living fossil ant because of its plesiomorphic body structure. The generic name Nothomyrmecia means "false bulldog ant". Its specific epithet, macrops ("big eyes"), is derived from the Greek words makros, meaning "long", or "large", and ops, meaning "eyes".
caption: Label of one of the Nothomyrmecia specimens collected by Taylor
exif: {"Image DocumentName": "AntWeb.org large sized label image of specimen casent0172002", "Image ImageDescription": "AntWeb.org image of Order:Hymenoptera Family:Formicidae Genus:Nothomyrmecia Species:Nothomyrmecia macrops Specimen:casent0172002 View:label", "Image Software": "EXIFutils V2.5.7", "Image DateTime": "2006:12:07 12:35:59", "Image Artist": "April Nobile", "Image Copyright": "Copyright AntWeb.org, 2000-2009. Licensing: Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 (cc-by-sa-3.0) Creative Commons License", "Image ExifOffset": "462", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220"}