Some Novelties In Presumed Males Of Leptanillinae (Hym., Formicidae).

Petersen, B∅Rge; Johnson, Norm; Cora, Joe

doi:10.5281/zenodo.25739

Cited by 2 publications

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“…The subfamily is divided into two monophyletic tribes, Leptanillini and Anomalomyrmini (Bolton 1990;Borowiec et al 2019), with the monotypic genus Opamyrma unplaced to tribe (Ward and Fisher 2016). Of the tribe Leptanillini, in only Leptanilla Emery, 1870 are the worker and queen known, with the remaining three genera -Scyphodon Brues, 1925; Noonilla Petersen, 1968;and Yavnella Kugler, 1987 -known only from male specimens. So far as is known, queens of Leptanilla are wingless and blind, resembling miniature versions of the dichthadiigynes observed in army ants of the subfamily Dorylinae (Hölldobler and Wilson 1990;Ito and Yamane 2020), whereas queens in the Anomalomyrmini are alate (Bolton 1990; Baroni Urbani and de Andrade 2006) or ergatoid (Billen et al 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A remarkable troglomorphic ant,

2022

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The ant subfamily Leptanillinae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) consists of minute soil-dwelling species, with several genera within this clade being based solely upon males, including Yavnella Kugler. The dissociation of males and workers has resulted in taxonomic confusion for the Leptanillinae. We here describe the worker caste of Yavnella, facilitated by maximum-likelihood and Bayesian inference from 473 partitioned ultra-conserved element loci, this dataset including 49 other leptanilline species, both described and undescribed. Yavnella laventa sp. nov. is described from seven worker specimens collected in south-western Iran from the Milieu Souterrain Superficiel, a subterranean microhabitat consisting of air-filled cavities among rock and soil fragments, which is subject to similar environmental conditions as caves. This species has bizarrely elongated appendages, which suggests that it is confined to cavities, in contrast with the soil-dwelling behaviour observed in other leptanilline ants. Based on its gracile phenotype relative to other Leptanillinae, Y. laventa shows remarkable adaptations for subterranean life, making it one of a very few examples of this syndrome among the ants. Moreover, the discovery of the worker caste of Yavnella expands our morphological knowledge of the leptanilline ants. We provide worker-and male-based diagnoses of Yavnella, along with a key to the genera of the Leptanillinae for which workers are known. The worker caste of Yavnella as known from this species is immediately recognisable, but the possibility must be noted that described workers of Leptanilla may in fact belong to Yavnella. Further molecular sampling is required to test this hypothesis.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A remarkable troglomorphic ant,

2022

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Discovery of the worker caste and descriptions of two new species of Anomalomyrma (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Leptanillinae) with unique abdominal morphology

Borowiec

Schulz

Alpert

et al. 2011

Zootaxa

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The hitherto unknown worker caste of Anomalomyrma Taylor, 1990 is described for the first time. Two new species, Anomalomyrma boltoni n. sp. from Cameron Highlands, Peninsular Malaysia and Anomalomyrma helenae n. sp. from El Nido region of Palawan, Philippines, are described. In workers of both new species abdominal segments II and III (petiole and postpetiole) are rigidly fused together across both tergites and sternites. This is the first report of such fused abdominal morphology in worker Formicidae. Both new species lack a vertical lamella on the mandible, originally considered to be diagnostic for the genus and the main character separating Anomalomyrma from Protanilla Taylor, 1990. Modified generic diagnoses are proposed for both Anomalomyrma and Protanilla. Wing venation is described for the first time from an anomalomyrmine alate gyne, and prospects for the future of the nomenclature of the group's genera are discussed. A modified key to the genera of Leptanillinae is given along with a short note on the correct authorship of some leptanilline names.

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Some Novelties In Presumed Males Of Leptanillinae (Hym., Formicidae).

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

A remarkable troglomorphic ant,

A remarkable troglomorphic ant,

Discovery of the worker caste and descriptions of two new species of Anomalomyrma (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Leptanillinae) with unique abdominal morphology

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