Eoecophylla, Archibald, Mathewes, and Perfilieva, 2024
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publication ID |
https://doi.org/10.4039/tce.2023.27 |
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persistent identifier |
https://treatment.plazi.org/id/0394A47F-0F4F-7468-FF08-FE4AFB37F918 |
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treatment provided by |
Felipe |
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scientific name |
Eoecophylla, Archibald, Mathewes, and Perfilieva |
| status |
gen. nov. |
Genus Eoecophylla, Archibald, Mathewes, and Perfilieva View in CoL n. gen.
ZooBank Registration number: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:0B7CBA6B-C6D3-4A6F-B511-1AE462986217
Figs. 1–5 View Figure 1 View Figure 2 View Figure 3 View Figure 4 View Figure 5 .
Formicidae Type A and Type B: Archibald and Mathewes 2000, pp. 1451, 1454, fig. 12A–B.
Formicidae sp. (all specimens listed below), Quilchena: Archibald et al. 2018, pp. 18–20, fig. 10A, B, and D.
Oecophylla sp. , SFU Q-0409 (here BBM-PAL-P000016): Perfilieva 2021, pp. 79, 84, plate 9, fig. 1.
Diagnosis. Queen. Forewings distinct from those of Oecophylla by presence of m-cu stub (originating on Rs M, not joining Cu) of varying lengths, from very small to less than half length to Cu [ Oecophylla : absent], sometimes small stubs of 1r-rs, rs-m present [ Oecophylla : absent]; pterostigma similar lengths basad, distad 2r-rs [ Oecophylla : considerably longer distad]; by hind wings with well-developed 2M [ Oecophylla : absent].
Type species. Eoecophylla quilchenensis View in CoL n. sp. by monotypy.
Description. As for Eoecophylla quilchenensis , below.
Remarks. The stub of m-cu is longest in the holotype and varies in other specimens to very short; e.g., see BBM-PAL-P000023 ( Fig. 4I, J View Figure 4 ) and Q-0492 ( Fig. 4K View Figure 4 ). Specimens also vary in the presence of very short stubs of 1r-rs in BBM-PAL-P000019 ( Fig. 4D View Figure 4 ) and rs-m in BBM-PAL- P000018 ( Fig. 4C View Figure 4 ) and BBM-PAL-P000019 ( Fig. 4D View Figure 4 ).
Hind wing venation is preserved only in the holotype ( Fig. 1C–E View Figure 1 ). This conforms to the type I hind wing venation of Cantone and Von Zuben (2019) by its well-developed 2M and the 2M’ s relationships with 1M and rs-m ( Fig. 1E View Figure 1 ). This is unique within Formicinae ( Perfilieva 2010) , which we consider plesiomorphic, suggesting that Oecophyllini is sister to the rest of the subfamily. A jugal lobe may be present or absent in Cantone and Von Zuben’ s (2019) type I hind wings but is always absent in their type II; this cannot be evaluated in E. quilchenensis due to poor preservation. It is very different from their type III, which has very reduced venation.
Specimens that we treat as males of Eoecophylla quilchenensis resemble those of Eoformica Cockerell in many ways, cf. the figures of Cockerell (1921, plate 8, fig. 11), Carpenter (1930, plate 2, fig. 6), Dlussky and Rasnitsyn (2003, figs. 26–34), and Lapolla and Greenwalt (2015, figs. 13–14). Eoformica was originally erected as a nominal genus by Cockerell (1921), although specimens assigned to it are so indistinctly preserved, have such a range of morphologies, and so are of such indeterminate affinities that it was later treated as a collective genus “which includes poorly preserved wingless imprints of ants in which the waist is one-segmented and narrowly attached to the gaster and the gaster lacks a constriction between the first and second segments” ( Dlussky et al. 2009, p. 14).
The Quilchena specimens, however, include many with wings, and the forewing of the allotype has some preserved venation, with Rs M, 2r-rs, 5Rs, and 4M meeting to form an ×, 5Rs curved towards the anterior margin, and the size and shape of cell 3r all consistent with Oecophyllini . General character states of their bodies agree with males of Oecophylla . In addition, the association of these males at the small outcrop at Quilchena with queens bearing the same wing character states strengthens this determination.
We suspect that once their wings are known, some ants currently assigned to the grab bag Eoformica might be recognised as Oecophylla or Eoecophylla males.
Etymology. The genus name is derived from Oecophylla and the Eocene. Gender, feminine.
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