Ancyridris

Taxobox
name = "Ancyridris"


image_caption = "A. polyrhachioides" worker a) Lateral aspect b) Head, dorsal aspect
c) Thorax and abdomen, dorsal aspect
image_width = 240px
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Insecta
subclassis = Pterygota
infraclassis = Neoptera
superordo = Endopterygota
ordo = Hymenoptera
subordo = Apocrita
superfamilia = Vespoidea
familia = Formicidae
subfamilia = Myrmicinae
tribus = Stenammini
genus = "Ancyridris"
genus_authority = Wheeler, 1935
type_species = "Ancyridris polyrhachioides"
type_species_authority = Wheeler, 1935
diversity_link = Ancyridris
diversity = 2 species
range_

range_map_width = 250px
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision =
* "A. polyrhachioides"
Wheeler, 1935
* "A. rupicapra"
(Stitz, 1938)

"Ancyridris" is a small genus of myrmicine ants, with only two described species from New Guinea.

Description

The eyes are well developed. The long and narrow mesosoma is shaped somewhat as in "Aphaenogaster". The propodeum bears two long, flattened, hooked spines resembling those of "Polyrhachis bihamata". On the pronotum there are long hairs. The worker of "A. polyrhachioides" is almost 6 mm long. Apart from the curious anchor-like spines on its propodeum, "Ancyridris" bears a general resemblance to "Aphaenogaster" or certain worker forms of "Pheidole". Wheeler suspected some aberrant or archaic group, "another of the living fossils which are continually turning up in the Papuan and Australian Regions".Wheeler (1935)] . Ancyridris in fact seems close to Lordomyrma. It is the only ant genus currently thought to be endemic to the island of New Guinea.

"A. rupicapra" was originally described in the genus "Pheidole (Pheidolacanthinus)". Its workers are 4 mm long.Stitz (1938)] A. polyrhachioides is black, and A. rupicapra reddish-brown (as implied by its specific name which translates as "red goat", referring as well to the goat-horn like propodeal spines. The sole known rupicapra specimen was collected in the mountains of the Sepik River catchment by the German colonial Kaiserin Augustafluss Expedition(1912-13).

The two original type specimens of "A. polyrhachioides" were recovered somewhat damaged from the stomach of an Eastern Blue-grey Robin ("Peneothello cyanus subcyaneus") ["Poecilodryas cyanea subcyanea" in Wheeler (1935) is a "lapsus" - though placed in "Poecilodryas" at that time, the specific name was "cyana".] which was caught on Mount Misim [ [http://www.maplandia.com/papua-new-guinea/east-sepik/misim/ Google Map of Misim, New Guinea] ] in the Morobe District of New Guinea.

Name

The genus name is derived from Ancient Greek αγκυρος "anchor" and ιδρις "the knowing/provident one", Hesiod's name for an ant [in: Works and Days, verse 778, in the text adopted in the Loeb Classical Library] , probably "Messor barbarus" or "M. structor".

Footnotes

References

* (1935): Two new genera of myrmicine ants from Papua and the Philippines. "Proceedings of the New England Zoological Club" 15: 1-9. [http://www.archive.org/stream/ants_03440/ants_03440.djvu DjVu fulltext] [http://www.archive.org/download/ants_03440/ants_03440.pdf PDF fulltext]
* (1938): Neue Ameisen aus dem indo-malayischen Gebiet ["New ants from the Indo-Malayan region"] [Article in German] . "Sitzungsberichte der Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin" 1938: 99-122. [http://antbase.org/ants/publications/2774/2774.pdf PDF fulltext]
* ITIS: [http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=574025 Genus "Ancyridris"]

External links

* AntWeb: [http://www.antweb.org/description.do?rank=genus&name=ancyridris&project=worldants Pictures of "Ancyridris" species]