Skip to content
EntityQ1004255· pop 19· linked from 158 articles

Myrmeciinae

Sign in to save

Myrmeciinae is a subfamily of the Formicidae, ants once found worldwide but now restricted to Australia and New Caledonia. This subfamily is one of several ant subfamilies which possess gamergates, female worker ants which are able to mate and reproduce, thus sustaining the colony after the loss of the queen. The Myrmeciinae subfamily was formerly composed of only one genus, Myrmecia, but the subfamily was redescribed by Ward & Brady in 2003 to include two tribes and four genera. An additional three genera, one form genus, and 9 species were described in 2006 from the Early Eocene of Denmark,

~2 min read

Encyclopedic overview

5 sections
Contents
  • Tribes and genera
  • Classification
  • See also
  • References
  • External links

Myrmeciinae is a subfamily of the Formicidae, ants once found worldwide but now restricted to Australia and New Caledonia. This subfamily is one of several ant subfamilies which possess gamergates, female worker ants which are able to mate and reproduce, thus sustaining the colony after the loss of the queen. The Myrmeciinae subfamily was formerly composed of only one genus, Myrmecia, but the subfamily was redescribed by Ward & Brady in 2003 to include two tribes and four genera. An additional three genera, one form genus, and 9 species were described in 2006 from the Early Eocene of Denmark, Canada, and Washington. Subsequently an additional fossil genus was moved from the family Rhopalosomatidae in 2018, and a new genus was described in 2021.

==Tribes and genera== Tribe Myrmeciini Myrmecia Tribe Prionomyrmecini Nothomyrmecia †Prionomyrmex †Propalosoma †Tyrannomecia †Ypresiomyrma Tribe incertae sedis †Archimyrmex †Avitomyrmex †Macabeemyrma Form genus (for species belonging to the subfamily but not identifiable to current genera) †Myrmeciites

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Myrmeciinae” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.