Cephalotes hispaniolicus
Cephalotes hispaniolicus Temporal range:
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Holotype | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Hymenoptera |
Family: | Formicidae |
Subfamily: | Myrmicinae |
Genus: | Cephalotes |
Species: | †C. hispaniolicus
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Binomial name | |
†Cephalotes hispaniolicus De Andrade & Baroni Urbani, 1999
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Cephalotes hispaniolicus is an
History and classification
C. hispaniolicus was described from a solitary fossil worker caste ant which was preserved as an inclusion in a transparent chunk of Dominican amber.[1] The amber was produced by the extinct tree Hymenaea protera, which formerly grew on Hispaniola, across northern South America and up to southern Mexico.[2] The specimen was collected from an unidentified amber mine in the Dominican Republic. The amber dates from the Burdigalian age of the Miocene, being recovered from sections of the La Toca Formation in the Cordillera Septentrional and the Yanigua Formation in the Cordillera Oriental.[1]
At the time of description, the holotype specimen was preserved in the collections of the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart in Germany. Living and fossil Cephalotes, Eucryptocerus, Exocryptocerus and Zacryptocerus ants were examined in 1999 by Maria L. De Andrade and Cesare Baroni Urbani with a redescription of included species being published in the journal Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde. Serie B (Geologie und Paläontologie). The fossil was first described in the paper along with a number of fossils and was placed into the new species Cephalotes hispaniolicus. De Andrade and Baroni Urbani coined the specific epithet hispaniolicus as a neologism referring to the island of origin for the amber and species, Hispaniola.[1]
Phylogeny
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/54/Cephalotes_hispaniolicus_SMNSDO4163_head.jpg/220px-Cephalotes_hispaniolicus_SMNSDO4163_head.jpg)
In the study of Cephalotes by de Andrade and Baroni Urbani, C. hispaniolicus was grouped into the multispinosus clade which is composed of three extinct species and three extant species. The clade shares only one distinct feature between the species; unlike other clades, multispinosus species have reduced lamellar expansions on the sides of the propodeum. C. hispaniolicus is distinguished from the first outgroup member of the clade Cephalotes poinari based on the shape of the propodial lamellar projections, but is closer in relation to it than to the other Dominican amber species in the clade, Cephalotes squamosus. C. hispaniolicus has the second highest cephalic index in the clade; only C. poinari has a greater one.[1]
Cephalotes |
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Description
The lone worker of C. hispaniolicus has a body length of 4.39 mm (0.173 in), a head length of 0.98 mm (0.039 in) and a cephalic index that is 142.8. The overall body color is black, with four lighter colored spots, two on the head and two on the
References
- ^ a b c d e f de Andrade, M. L.; Baroni Urbani, C. (1999). "Diversity and adaptation in the ant genus Cephalotes, past and present". Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde, Serie B (Geologie und Paläontologie). 271: 537–538.
- ISBN 978-0-9558636-4-6.
External links
Media related to Cephalotes hispaniolicus at Wikimedia Commons