Gesomyrmex curiosus

†Gesomyrmex curiosus Temporal range: Lutetian, Middle Eocene K Pa Eo Ol Mi Pl ↓ Messel, Germany
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Formicinae
Tribe:	Gesomyrmecini
Genus:	Gesomyrmex
Species:	†G. curiosus
Binomial name
†Gesomyrmex curiosus Dlussky, Wappler & Wedmann, 2009

No formal diagnosis was provided when this species was described and only one head in frontal view is preserved. The only comparative comment was that the head ‘is very different from all other fossil and living species’ in this genus. In the absence of compelling diagnostic features for this species it should be considered a possible synonym of Gesomyrmex hoernesi (Aria et al., 2023).

Identification

• 

  Cephalic morphometrics of gynes for relevant fossil Gesomyrmex species. (a) Head length (HL). (b) Normalized head shape (head length/head width, HRN, squares) and normalized relative eye diameter (eye diameter/head length, HERN, diamonds). Abbreviations: flav., flavescens; germ., germanicus; hoern., hoernesi. (Aria et al., 2023, Fig. 4)

Distribution

This taxon was described from Messel, Germany (Lutetian, Middle Eocene).

Nomenclature

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

• †curiosus. †Gesomyrmex curiosus Dlussky, Wappler & Wedmann, 2009: 12, figs. 4C, 6H (q.) GERMANY.

References

• Aria, C., Jouault, C., Perrichot, V., Nel, A. 2023. The megathermal ant genus Gesomyrmex (Formicidae: Formicinae), palaeoindicator of wide latitudinal biome homogeneity during the PETM. Geological Magazine, 1–11 (doi:10.1017/s0016756822001248).
• Dlussky, G.M., Wappler, T., Wedmann, S. 2009. Fossil ants of the genus Gesomyrmex Mayr (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) from the Eocene of Europe and remarks on the evolution of arboreal ant communities. Zootaxa 2031: 1-20 (doi:10.11646/zootaxa.2031.1.1).