- Formiciinae
Taxobox
name = "Formicium"
fossil_range =Eocene
regnum =Animal ia
phylum =Arthropod a
classis =Insect a
ordo =Hymenoptera
subordo =Apocrita
superfamilia =Vespoidea
familia = Formicidae
subfamilia = Formiciinae(extinct)
genus = "Formicium"
subdivision_ranks =Species
subdivision =
*"Formicium berryi "Carpenter, 1929
*"Formicium brodiei "Westwood, 1854
*"Formicium giganteum "Lutz, 1986
*"Formicium mirabile "Cockerell, 1920
*"Formicium simillimum "Lutz, 1986The Formiciinae is a
fossil subfamily ofant . The type and onlygenus is "Formicium". The genus "Formicium" includes at this moment 5species and is known only from queens and males. Workers were never found. Thewingspan of the sexuals is the biggest among ants, both extant andextinct types combined, that have ever been found. The queens have a maximum wingspan of 13 to 15 cm. They were real giants (one of the species is called "F. giganteum"). Two of the species are known from queens and males, both from anEocene deposit inMessel, Germany . The others are only known from isolated wings (Britain andUSA ). It is suspected that more species can be found in Messel and nearby deposits.The Formicidae family belongs to the order
Hymenoptera , which also includessawflies ,bees andwasps . Ants are a lineage derived from within the vespoid wasps. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that ants evolved fromvespoids in the mid-Cretaceous period about 120 to 170 million years ago. After the rise ofangiosperm plants about 100 million years ago, they diversified and assumed ecological dominance about 60 million years ago. [4] [5] [6] Several fossils from the Cretaceous are intermediate in form between wasps and ants, adding further evidence for wasp ancestry. Like other Hymenoptera, the genetic system found in ants is haplodiploidy.In 1966 E. O. Wilson, et al. obtained the first
amber fossil remains of an ant (Sphecomyrma freyi ) from theCretaceous era. The specimen was trapped in amber fromNew Jersey and is more than 80 million years old. This species provides the clearest evidence of a link between modern ants and non-social wasps. Cretaceous ants shared both wasp-like and modern ant-like characteristics. [7]During the Cretaceous era, only a few species of primitive ants ranged widely on the super-continent
Laurasia (thenorthern hemisphere ). They were scarce in comparison to otherinsects (about only 1%). Ants became dominant afteradaptive radiation at the beginning of theTertiary Period. Of the species extant in the Cretaceous andEocene eras, only 1 of approximately 10 genera is nowextinct . 56% of the genera represented on the Baltic amber fossils (earlyOligocene ), and 96% of the genera represented in the Dominican amber fossils (apparently earlyMiocene ) still survive today
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