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Anochetus miosumatrensis
| †Anochetus miosumatrensis Temporal range: Miocene Sumatran amber, West Sumatra, Indonesia | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Formicidae |
| Subfamily: | Ponerinae |
| Tribe: | Ponerini |
| Genus: | Anochetus |
| Species: | †A. miosumatrensis |
| Binomial name | |
| †Anochetus miosumatrensis Ngô-Muller, Garrouste & Nel, 2021 | |
The fossil specimen is preserved in a piece of relatively darkened yellow amber, which was carefully ground and polished prior to examination and photography. It is part of a small collection of 53 amber pieces with inclusions bought from a local trader (Starnborn Creations). This material will be deposited by Jean-Marc Pouillon in the near future in an official institution. This fossil resin is assigned to the Glessite group (Narudeesombat et al. 2014; Naglik et al. 2018) and was probably produced by trees of the family Dipterocarpaceae, likely close to Shorea Roxb. ex C.F.Gaertn. (1805). Sumatran amber is a byproduct of coal mining, and different ages ranging from Eocene to Pliocene have been recorded for these coal mines (Belkin & Tewalt 2007; Bak et al. 2016). Previous reports of Sumatran amber, although from different localities, suggested an early Miocene age and a dipterocarp tree source (Durham 1956; Langenheim & Beck 1965; Brackman et al. 1984; Lambert et al. 1999, 2013).
The material comes from the South Sumatra Basin, probably from Sinamar, Dharmasraya Regency, West Sumatra, in a mine supposedly Miocene in age (15-25 Mya) (De Smet & Barber 2005). Many fossils within these amber inclusions are deformed because the amber was probably heated by volcanic activity that occurred in the area during the Miocene (Kosmowska-Ceranowicz et al. 2017). It is especially the case for this fossil ant, thus the body shape was partially deformed rendering the dimensions weakly indicative.
Identification
Distribution
This taxon was described from Sumatran amber (Miocene).
Castes
Nomenclature
The following information is derived from Barry Bolton's Online Catalogue of the Ants of the World.
- †miosumatrensis. †Anochetus miosumatrensis Ngô-Muller, Garrouste & Nel, in Ngô-Muller et al., 2021: 23, figs. 1-3 (aq.) INDONESIA (Sumatran Amber, Miocene).
Type Material
Holotype: Specimen JMP2362 (alate queen), Sinamar, Dharmasraya Regency, West Sumatra, South Sumatra Basin, Miocene (JMP private coll., ultimately in Musée d'Histoire naturelle et d'Ethnographie, Colmar, France).
Description
References
- Ngô-Muller V., Garrouste R., Schubnel T., Pouillon J.-M., Christophersen V., Christophersen N., Nel A. 2021. The first representative of the trap-jaw ant genus Anochetus Mayr, 1861 in Neogene amber from Sumatra (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Comptes Rendus Palevol 20(2): 21-27 (doi:10.5852/cr-palevol2021v20a2).