Archiponera

There is only a single species in this genus found in Florissant shale (Oligocene) from Colorado, USA.

Identification
Worker. - Head large, with convex sides and broadly rounded posterior angles; mandibles small, linear; clypeus large, anterior margin with a median incision, posterior margin with a large median lobe; eyes small, situated very high up on the sides of the head, a little posterior of the middle line of the head; ocelli absent; antennae long and slender, 12-segmented; petiole short but high, cuneiform; gaster small, globular, the first two segments of moderate size, the others short and compressed.

Male. - Slender; petiole long, with a low scale; forewing with two cubital cells, the first intercubitus joining the cubitus at a point much above the junction of the latter with the recurrent vein; second intercubitus far apical of the termination of the first intercubitus.

Castes
Worker, male

Nomenclature
The following information is derived from Barry Bolton's New General Catalogue, a catalogue of the world's ants. Barry continually updates his Catalogue and thus the following information reflects an up-to-date accounting of ant taxonomy. We are indebted to Barry for making this information available.

Genus *ARCHIPONERA Taxonomic history
 * Archiponera Carpenter, 1930: 27. Type-species: *Archiponera wheeleri, by original designation.
 * Archiponera in Ponerinae, Ectatommini: Wheeler, W.M. 1930f: 13 (in text).
 * Archiponera in Ponerinae, *Archiponerini: Dlussky & Fedoseeva, 1988: 78.
 * Archiponera in Ponerinae, Ponerini: Carpenter, 1930: 27; Hölldobler & Wilson, 1990: 10; Bolton, 1994: 164; Bolton, 1995b: 75; Bolton, 2003: 172.