Aphaenogaster praerelicta
Aphaenogaster praerelicta Temporal range:
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Hymenoptera |
Family: | Formicidae |
Subfamily: | Myrmicinae |
Genus: | Aphaenogaster |
Species: | †A. praerelicta
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Binomial name | |
†Aphaenogaster praerelicta De Andrade, 1995
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Aphaenogaster praerelicta is an
History and classification
Aphaenogaster praerelicta is known from a solitary fossil insect which is an
The fossil ant was first studied by paleoentomologist Maria De Andrade of the University of Basel. De Andrade's 1995 type description of the new species was published in the German journal Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde. Serie B (Geologie und Paläontologie). The specific epithet praerelicta is a combination of the Latin "prae" meaning before and "relicta", the species name for the modern Aphaenogaster relicta of Haiti, to which A. praerelicta is most similar. A. praerelicta is one of two species described by De Andrade in the 1995 paper: the other species Aphaenogaster amphioceanica was found in Dominican amber. Three l species of Aphaenogaster are currently known from Mexico, the fossil A. praerelicta, A. ensifera and A. mexicana.[2]
Description
The Aphaenogaster praerelicta specimen is a well-preserved worker caste adult with an estimated body length of approximately 6.28 millimetres (0.247 in). The overall