A new genus of hell ants from the Cretaceous (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Haidomyrmecini) with a novel head structure

Abstract

An unusual Cretaceous trap jaw ant is described from Burmese amber dated to the Late Cretaceous. Linguamyrmex vladi gen.n. sp.n. is distinguished by an unusual suite of morphological characters indicating specialized predatory behaviour and an adaptive strategy no longer found among modern ant lineages. The clypeus, highly modified as in other closely related haidomyrmecine hell ants, is equipped with a paddle‐like projection similar to Ceratomyrmex. X‐ray imaging reveals that this clypeal paddle is reinforced, most probably with sequestered metals. Presumably this fortified clypeal structure was utilized in tandem with scythe‐like mandibles to pin and potentially puncture soft‐bodied prey. This unique taxon, which stresses the diversity of stem‐group ants, is discussed in the context of modern and other Cretaceous trap jaw ant species. This published work has been registered in ZooBank, http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:40D636A3-4D88-470A-BC5B-85ABFD1A49E2.

From phage display to structure: an interplay of enthalpy and entropy in the binding of the LDHSLHS polypeptide to silica

“…Efficient inclusion of inorganic microstructures in living organisms has occurred since the early days of evolution 1 where mineral inclusion increased the structural stability of singlecelled organisms including diatoms through to higher plants. [2][3][4] The ability to deposit structured inorganic materials in living organisms lead to the development of internal skeletons 5,6 -the signature of all vertebrates. 1,7 Among the many possible mineral inclusions, SiO 2 is important in cellular/tissue morphogenesis.…”

Mouth morphology of the diving beetle Hyphydrus japonicus (Dytiscidae: Hydroporinae) is specialized for predation on seed shrimps

“…Our research suggests that specific prey organisms are important for the evolution of the mouth morphology of predators. For example, Cretaceous fossil ants have special mouthparts (Perrichot, Wang & Engel, 2016;Barden, Herhold & Grimaldi, 2017) with large mandibles that move in a vertical direction, paired with a projection of the head similar to that of Hydroporinae. It is unknown how they use mandibles and protrusions, but it might indicate the presence of specific organisms to capture.…”

A new lineage of braconid wasps in Burmese Cenomanian amber (Hymenoptera, Braconidae)

“…However, where known, most Cretaceous ichneumonoids are on the smaller end of the size spectrum, including those preserved as compressions (e.g., Townes 1973; Zhang and Rasnitsyn 2003; Kopylov 2011, 2012; Belokobylskij 2012), and one might speculate that large-sized species simply did not exist during the period. However, given that the majority of wasps known from Cretaceous amber are often of smaller proportions (i.e., 12 mm or less) (e.g., Liu et al 2007; Engel and Grimaldi 2009; McKellar and Engel 2012; Engel et al 2013, 2017), and this is also true for coeval ants (e.g., Engel and Grimaldi 2005; McKellar et al 2013b, 2013c; Barden and Grimaldi 2013, 2014, 2016; Perrichot et al 2016; Barden et al 2017), one might conclude that the taphonomic bias is true. This is particularly evident when one considers that larger arthropod inclusions are certainly well known, with numerous such examples in these same resins (e.g., Grimaldi et al 2002; Engel and Grimaldi 2008), and certainly this is the case in the diverse Cenozoic ambers (e.g., Engel 1995, 2014; Engel and Grimaldi 2007).…”