Technomyrmex deletus

†Technomyrmex deletus Temporal range: Late/Upper Miocene K Pa Eo Ol Mi Pl Sicilian amber, Italy
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Dolichoderinae
Genus:	Technomyrmex
Species:	†T. deletus
Binomial name
†Technomyrmex deletus Emery, 1891

Distribution

This taxon was described from Sicilian amber, Italy (Late/Upper Miocene).

Nomenclature

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

• †deletus. †Technomyrmex deletus Emery, 1891a: 153, pl. 3, figs. 26-28 (w.) SICILIAN AMBER (Oligocene). See also: Bolton, 2007a: 122.

Unless otherwise noted the text for the remainder of this section is reported from the publication that includes the original description.

Bolton (2007) - This fossil in amber is almost certainly correctly placed in Technomyrmex . It is badly damaged and the abdomen is deformed and ruptured. While this has occluded the characteristic external abdominal characters of the genus it has fortunately exposed the proventriculus to view. In Technomyrmex the cupola of the proventriculus is sculptured (Forel, 1878; Emery, 1888; Eisner, 1957) and the presence of such sculpture appears to be a unique character of the genus. Emery ~ 1891) points out that such sculpture is present in Technomyrmex deletus and from Emery's original description and figures deletus may possibly belong to the Technomyrmex albipes group.

Type Material

Bolton (2007) - Holotype worker: Sicilian Amber (Museo Mineralogico, Universita di Bologna).

References

• Bolton, B. 2007. Taxonomy of the dolichoderine ant genus Technomyrmex Mayr (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) based on the worker caste. Contributions of the American Entomological Institute. 35(1):1-149.
• Emery, C. 1891b. Le formiche dell'ambra Siciliana nel Museo Mineralogico dell'Università di Bologna. Mem. R. Accad. Sci. Ist. Bologna (5)1:141-165 (page 153, pl. 3, figs. 26-28 worker described)
• Perfilieva, K.S. 2022. Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from localities of the Russian Far East (Amgu, Velikaya Kema). Paleontological Journal, 56(4), 412–425 (doi:10.1134/s0031030122040086).
• Perrichot, V., Boudinot, B.E., Engel, M.S., Xu, C., Bojarski, B., Szwedo, J. 2022. Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from Miocene Ethiopian amber: filling gaps in the geological record of African terrestrial biota, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2022, zlac053 (doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlac053).