Myrmeciinae

Myrmeciinae
Myrmeciinae
Myrmecia gulosa
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Suborder: Apocrita
Superfamily: Vespoidea
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Myrmeciinae
Emery, 1877
tribes & species
  • see text

The Myrmeciinae is a subfamily of the Formicidae that was once found worldwide but is now restricted to Australia and New Caledonia. This subfamily is one of several ant subfamilies which possess gamergates, female worker ants which are able to mate and reproduce, thus sustaining the colony after the loss of the queen.[1] The Myrmeciinae subfamily was formerly composed of only one genus, Myrmecia, however the subfamily was redescribed by Ward & Brady in 2003 to include two tribes and four genera:[2] An additional three genera, one form genus, and nine species were described in 2006 by Archibald, Cover and Moreau from the Early Eocene of Denmark Canada, and Washington.[3]

  • Tribe Myrmeciini
  • Tribe Prionomyrmecini
  • Tribe incertae sedis
    • †Avitomyrmex
    • †Macabeemyrma
    • †Ypresiomyrma
  • Form genus (for species belonging to the subfamily but not identifiable to current genera)

References

  1. ^ Vincent Dietemann, Christian Peeters & Bert Hölldobler (2004). "Gamergates in the Australian ant subfamily Myrmeciinae". Natuwwissenschaften 91 (9): 432–435. doi:10.1007/s00114-004-0549-1. PMID 15278223. 
  2. ^ Philip S. Ward & Seán G. Brady (2003). "Phylogeny and biogeography of the ant subfamily Myrmeciinae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)" (PDF). Invertebrate Systematics 17 (3): 361–386. doi:10.1071/IS02046. http://entomology.si.edu/staffpages/Brady/2003_Ward_Brady_InvSyst.pdf. 
  3. ^ Archibald, S.B.; Cover, S. P.; Moreau, C. S. (2006). "Bulldog Ants of the Eocene Okanagan Highlands and History of the Subfamily (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Myrmeciinae)". Annals of the Entomological Society of America 99 (3): 487–523. http://antbase.org/ants/publications/21067/21067.pdf. 

External links


Stub icon This ant-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.