Sharaf, Mostafa R.;Aldawood, Abdulrahman S.
Meranoplus
Sign in to saveMeranoplus is an Old World genus of ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae. With over 80 valid species, it is predicted that over half of the Meranoplus diversity remains undescribed, most of these from Australia.
Species
GENUS
- KingdomAnimalia
- PhylumArthropoda
- ClassInsecta
- OrderHymenoptera
- FamilyFormicidae
Worker. -Body short and stout, somewhat flattened. Head broader behind than in front, convex above with frontal carinae far apart, diverging behind and prolonged backwards us the upper margins of deep scrobes above the eyes for the accommodation of the whole folded antennae. Eyes prominent, placed near the posterior corners of the head; ocelli absent. Clypeus short and steep. Mandibles small and stout, with a few subequal teeth. Antennae 9-jointed, with a large 3-jointed elub; the scapes thickened distally. Thorax short and broad, flattened above, the pro- and mesonotum marginate or lamellately expanded on the sides and behind, forming a disc with spined or toothed anterior corners and with the posterior margin lobed or toothed and overhanging the epinotum, which is very steep or vertical and usually armed with spines. Petiole squamiform, cuneate in profile. Postpetiole with a cuboidal, globose or squamiform node. Gaster large, oval or cordate, emarginate anteriorly at the articulation of the postpetiole. Body usually more or less opaque or subopaque and sculptured, covered with long, abundant and soft or Hexuous hairs. Female decidedly larger than the worker, with 9-jointed antenn
via GBIF
Museum specimens
- Specimen records
- 1,978
- With media
- 50
- Family
- Formicidae
- Collections
- USNM, NMV, UTEP, CSIRO, CAS
- Recorded in
- Australia, Philippines, Malaysia, South Africa, Papua New Guinea
~5 min read
Encyclopedic overview
6 sectionsContents
- Classification
- Distribution
- Biology
- Species
- References
- External links
Meranoplus is an Old World genus of ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae. With over 80 valid species, it is predicted that over half of the Meranoplus diversity remains undescribed, most of these from Australia.
==Classification== Meranoplus is a unique and charismatic myrmicine genus of hairy, slow-moving, and armored ants. The genus was previously classified in its own tribe, the Meranoplini, with one fossil genus, Parameranoplus, from Baltic amber (44.1 ± 1.1 mya), but was moved to Crematogastrini by Ward et al. (2015). The historic shuffling of Meranoplus through higher taxa — Cryptoceridae, Cataulacinae, Tetramoriini, Meranoplini — reflects our poor understanding of the phylogenetic position of Meranoplus within the Formicidae. Brady et al. (2006) recovered a clade of Meranoplus and Cataulacus, although this relationship was not supported in Moreau et al. (2006).
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Meranoplus” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.