Pheidole rasnitsyni

Pheidole rasnitsyni
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Myrmicinae
Tribe:	Attini
Genus:	Pheidole
Species:	P. rasnitsyni
Binomial name
	Pheidole rasnitsyni; Dubovikoff, 2011

While originally described as occurring in Baltic amber, this species was actually from copal (less than 1 Ma) (Dubovikoff , personal communication, as reported by Perkovsky, 2016).

Identification

Distribution

Distribution based on AntMaps

Distribution based on AntWeb specimens

Check data from AntWeb

Biology

Castes

Nomenclature

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

rasnitsyni. Pheidole rasnitsyni Dubovikoff, 2011: 255, figs. 1-5 (w.) Baltic Sea area (in copal).

Taxonomic Notes

Casadei-Ferreira, Chaul & Feitosa, 2019: A question remains regarding the identity of the fossil species Pheidole rasnitsyni. Dubovikoff (2011) proposed Pheidole rasnitsyni from pieces assumed to be truly Baltic amber, but he latter informed Perkovsky (2016: 117) that they were actually copal. Considering the putative young age of this inclusion (< 1 mya), it is possible that P. rasnitsyni is a junior synonym of a modern species. To accurately ensure the identity of this species, direct comparison with extant species would be necessary. However, in addition to the traditional limitations in observing details of morphology in resin inclusions, a second problem is that P. rasnitsyni is known only from minor workers. This makes it extremely difficult to determine the relationship between P. rasnitsyni and other extant species, since the morphology of minor workers in Pheidole is extremely conserved, especially in the Palaearctic species. In this scenario, although we think that P. rasnitsyni clearly belongs to Pheidole, we encourage a careful analysis of its identity in the future.

Description

References