Leptomyrmex neotropicus

Dominican amber fossil ants.

Distribution
This taxon was described from Dominican Amber (Miocene).

Nomenclature

 * † neotropicus. †Leptomyrmex neotropicus Baroni Urbani, 1980d: 4, figs. 1-5 (w.) DOMINICAN AMBER (Miocene). Combination in Camponotus: Wilson, 1985c: 34; in Leptomyrmex: Baroni Urbani & Wilson, 1987: 2. See also: Lucky & Ward, 2010: 62.

Lucky and Ward (2010) - Dominican Amber: 2 workers,. These amber specimens resemble Leptomyrmex in the following characters: hypostomal notch present and u-shaped, scapes exceeding the postocular margin by approximately half their length, many teeth and denticles, integument thin and lacking sculpture, limbs long and slender, body overall gracile, elongate. These characters suggest an affinity with the extant Leptomyrmex species, but given the disjunct distribution of the fossils and the living species it is likely that L. neotropicus belongs to a stem lineage of this genus, a fact which should be taken into account when using the fossils for age calibrations in phylogenetic studies. The sister group of Leptomyrmex is a clade comprised of the two Neotropical genera, Forelius and Dorymyrmex, and it has been suggested that L. neotropicus might represent a stem species in the latter clade (Ward et al.2010).

Type Material
Lucky and Ward (2010) - Type material not examined. Holotype [Do-996-K-1] and paratypes, totaling 10 workers from a single block of Dominican amber