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Aphaenogaster mersa
| †Aphaenogaster mersa Temporal range: Priabonian, Late Eocene Baltic amber, Baltic Sea region | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Formicidae |
| Subfamily: | Myrmicinae |
| Tribe: | Stenammini |
| Genus: | Aphaenogaster |
| Species: | †A. mersa |
| Binomial name | |
| †Aphaenogaster mersa Wheeler, W.M., 1915 | |
Aphaenogaster mersa is one of 14 fossil Aphaenogaster species, and one of three known from Baltic amber (the others being Aphaenogaster oligocenica and Aphaenogaster sommerfeldti). It is known from two specimens, the type specimen in the Geolog. Inst. Koenigsberg Coll. and a second reported by Dlussky & Rasnitsyn (2009). The type specimen, though in a small piece of amber, is not very clearly visible, owing to a thick white film which envelops the whole left side of the body and the whole gaster, and a crack which obscures the anterior portion of the head.
Identification
Differing from Aphaenogaster sommerfeldti in the following characters: The anterior border of the mesonotum does not project above the pronotum and the epinotal teeth are broader and blunter. The head and thorax and perhaps also the petiole and postpetiole are very coarsely reticulate rugose, and not longitudinally rugose, except on the front of the head.
Distribution
This taxon was described from Baltic amber, Baltic Sea region, Europe (Priabonian, Late Eocene) and is also known from Rovno amber, Baltic Sea region, Europe (Priabonian, Late Eocene) (Perkovsky, 2016).
Castes
Nomenclature
The following information is derived from Barry Bolton's Online Catalogue of the Ants of the World.
- †mersa. †Aphaenogaster mersa Wheeler, W.M. 1915h: 55, fig. 20 (w.) BALTIC AMBER (Eocene).
- Status as species: Burnham, 1979: 110; Keilbach, 1982: 275; Bolton, 1995b: 71; Dlussky & Rasnitsyn, 2009: 1031; Perkovsky, 2016: 115.
Description
References
- Bolton, B. 1995b. A new general catalogue of the ants of the world. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 504 pp. (page 71, catalogue)
- Dlussky, G.M. & Rasnitsyn, A.P. 2009. Ants (Insecta: Vespida: Formicidae) in the Upper Eocene Amber of Central and Eastern Europe. Paleontological Journal 43(9): 1024–1042 (doi:10.1134/S0031030109090056).
- Perkovsky, E.E. 2016. Tropical and Holoarctic ants in late Eocene ambers. Vestnik zoologii 50(2): 111–122 (doi:10.1515/vzoo-2016-0014).
- Radchenko, A.G., Gröhn, C., Ribbecke, H.-W. 2024. Two new Aphaenogaster species (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) from Baltic Amber. Zoodiversity 58(3), 195–202 (doi:10.15407/zoo2024.03.195).
- Wheeler, W. M. 1915i [1914]. The ants of the Baltic Amber. Schr. Phys.-Ökon. Ges. Königsb. 55: 1-142. (page 55, fig. 20 worker described)