Eocenomyrma rugosostriata

†Eocenomyrma rugosostriata; Temporal range: Priabonian, Late Eocene K Pa Eo Ol Mi Pl Baltic amber, Baltic Sea region
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Myrmicinae
Tribe:	Crematogastrini
Genus:	Eocenomyrma
Species:	†E. rugosostriata
Binomial name
	†Eocenomyrma rugosostriata; (Mayr, 1868)

Eocenomyrma rugosostriata appears to be not only the commonest species of the genus, but also the species with the widest known distribution as well (Radchenko & Perkovsky, 2018).

Photo Gallery

Photo of Eocenomyrma rugosostriata, worker, collection number SIZK L-30, AntWeb CASENT number 0917571: 1 — lateral view from the left; 2 — dorso-lateral view from the right. (From Radchenko & Perkovsky (2018), photo by E. Martynova).

Identification

Distribution

This taxon was described from Baltic amber, Baltic Sea region, Europe (Priabonian, Late Eocene) and is also known from Bitterfeld amber, Baltic Sea region, Europe (Priabonian, Late Eocene) (Perkovsky, 2016) and Rovno amber, Baltic Sea region, Europe (Priabonian, Late Eocene) (Radchenko & Perkovsky, 2018).

Castes

Nomenclature

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

†rugosostriata. †Macromischa rugosostriata Mayr, 1868c: 84, pl. 4, fig. 82 (w.) BALTIC AMBER (Eocene).
- Combination in †Nothomyrmica: Wheeler, W.M. 1915h: 61.
- Combination in †Eocenomyrma: Dlussky & Radchenko, 2006b: 565.

Type Material

Neotype (designated by Dlussky & Radchenko, 2006: 565), worker, Baltic Amber (Eocene), ZMHU F−191, Berlin Museum für Naturkunde der Humboldt-Universität.

Taxonomic Notes

Radchenko & Perkovsky (2018) - Mayr (1868) described Macromischa rugosostriata based on two workers from the Baltic amber. Later on Wheeler (1915) found nine more workers and one queen of this species from this amber and transferred it to the established by him new genus Nothomyrmica Wheeler. Dlussky and Radchenko (2006) transferred Nothomyrmica rugosostriata to the genus Eocenomyrma, designated the neotype of this species from the Bitterfeld amber and redescribed it based on three workers from the Bitterfeld and Baltic ambers. At last, Radchenko and Dlussky (2016) provided data on one more worker specimen of E. rugosostriata from the Baltic amber.

Thus, till now E. rugosostriata seems to be the commonest member of this genus — in total, 16 specimens of this species are found in the Baltic, Bitterfeld and Rovno ambers, while only seven specimens attributed to other five Eocenomyrma species are found till now. One species (Eocenomyrma orthospina) is known from both Rovno and Baltic ambers, and each of other species are found in the single of four Late Eocene European ambers (Dlussky, Radchenko, 2006; Dlussky, Rasnitsyn, 2009; Radchenko, Dlussky, 2016). At the same time, four of six Eocenomyrma species are known from the Rovno amber that makes this fauna the richest among all other ambers. Only three species are known from the northern coast of Subparathetys (Baltic amber) and solely Eocenomyrma elegantula is known only from Baltic amber. However, five Eocenomyrma species are found in at least 6.5 times smaller in number of specimens collections from the southern coast of Subparathetys (Rovno, Bitterfeld and Scandinavian ambers), including three species unknown from the Baltic amber. It seems that Eocenomyrma ants were at least less diverse on the northern coast of Subparathetys.

Description

References