Afromyrma

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Afromyrma
Temporal range: Turonian, Late Cretaceous
Orapa kimberlitic deposits, Botswana
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Myrmicinae
Genus: Afromyrma
Dlussky, Brothers & Rasnitsyn, 2004
Type species
Afromyrma petrosa
Diversity
1 fossil species
(Species Checklist)

The single species in this genus is known from the late Cretaceous deposits in Orapa, Botswana. These fossils are approximately 91 million years old.

Identification

Description. – Head with clear occipital angles. Eye well developed. Mandible stout, triangular, with well developed chewing margin. Propodeum lacking spines or teeth. Waist distinctly two-segmented; petiole with weak node, distinctly narrowed anteriorly; postpetiole with convex sides, narrower than gaster.

Material examined. – Material from Orapa is housed in the Bernard Price Institute of Palaeontology (BPI) at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and also in the National Museum of Botswana, Gaborone.

Distribution

This taxon is known from Orapa kimberlitic deposits, Botswana (Turonian, Late Cretaceous).

Castes

Nomenclature

The following information is derived from Barry Bolton's Online Catalogue of the Ants of the World.

  • AFROMYRMA [incertae sedis in Myrmicinae]
    • Afromyrma Dlussky, Brothers & Rasnitsyn, 2004: 9. Type-species: †Afromyrma petrosa, by original designation.

References