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Cyrtopone
''Cyrtopone'' is an extinct genus of ants in the Formicidae, formicid subfamily Ponerinae described from fossils found in Europe. There are four described species placed into the genus, ''Cyrtopone curiosa'', ''Cyrtopone elongata'', ''Cyrtopone microcephala'', and ''Cyrtopone striata''. ''Cyrtopone'' is one several Lutetian Ponerinae genera. History and classification When described, ''Cyrtopone'' was known from four fossil insects which are compression fossil, compression-impression fossils preserved in layers of soft sedimentary rock. Along with other well preserved insect fossils, the ''Cyrtopone'' specimens were collected from layers of the Lutetian Messel pit World Heritage Site. The formation is composed of brown coals, oil shales, and bituminous shale, which preserved numerous insects, fish, birds, reptiles, and terrestrial mammals as a notable lagerstätten. The area is a preserved maar, maar lake which initially formed approximately 47 million years ago as the result ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cyrtopone Curiosa Holotype SMFMEI6075
''Cyrtopone'' is an extinct genus of ants in the formicid subfamily Ponerinae described from fossils found in Europe. There are four described species placed into the genus, ''Cyrtopone curiosa'', ''Cyrtopone elongata'', ''Cyrtopone microcephala'', and ''Cyrtopone striata''. ''Cyrtopone'' is one several Lutetian Ponerinae genera. History and classification When described, ''Cyrtopone'' was known from four fossil insects which are compression-impression fossils preserved in layers of soft sedimentary rock. Along with other well preserved insect fossils, the ''Cyrtopone'' specimens were collected from layers of the Lutetian Messel pit World Heritage Site. The formation is composed of brown coals, oil shales, and bituminous shale, which preserved numerous insects, fish, birds, reptiles, and terrestrial mammals as a notable lagerstätten. The area is a preserved maar lake which initially formed approximately 47 million years ago as the result of volcanic explosions. At the t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Messel Pit
The Messel Formation is a Formation (geology), geologic formation in Hesse, central Germany, dating back to the Eocene Epoch (geology), epoch (about 47 Ma). Its geographic range is restricted to the Messel pit. There it unconformably overlies crystalline Variscan basement and its Permian cover (Rotliegend) as well as Eocene volcanic breccias derived from the basement rocks. The formation mainly comprises lacustrine laminated bituminous shale (‘oil shale’) renowned for its content of fossils in exceptional preservation, particularly plants, arthropods and vertebrates (e.g. ''Darwinius masillae''). Messel pit The Messel pit () is a disused quarry near the village of Messel (Landkreis Darmstadt-Dieburg, Hesse) about southeast of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Bituminous shale was mined there. Because of its abundance of well-preserved fossils of the Messel Formation dating from the middle of the Eocene, it has significant geological and scientific importance. Over 1400 taxa o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Protopone
''Protopone'' is an extinct genus of ants in the Formicidae, formicid subfamily Ponerinae described from fossils found in Europe and Asia. There are seven described species placed into the genus, ''Protopone? dubia'', ''Protopone germanica'', ''Protopone magna'', ''Protopone oculata'', ''Protopone primigena'', ''Protopone sepulta'', and ''Protopone vetula''. ''Protopone'' is one several Lutetian Ponerinae genera. History and classification When first described, ''Protopone'' was known from a single fossil insect Inclusion (mineral), included in a transparent chunk of Sakhalin amber. When the fossil was described it was part of the amber collections housed in the Russian Academy of Sciences, Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences. The amber was recovered from fossil bearing rocks in the Sakhalin region of Eastern Russia. At the time of description, the amber was estimated to date from the Paleocene. Further research has revised the amber, which originates fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ponerinae
Ponerinae, the ponerine ants, is a subfamily of ants in the Poneromorph subfamilies group, with about 1,600 species in 47 extant genera, including '' Dinoponera gigantea'' - one of the world's largest species of ant. Mated workers have replaced the queen as the functional egg-layers in several species of ponerine ants. In such queenless species, the reproductive status of workers can only be determined through ovarian dissections. Description and identification Ponerinae are most easily identified from other subfamilies by possessing a single-segmented petiole and the gaster usually being constricted between the first and second segments. ''Odontomachus'' lack this constriction, but these can be identified from their elongate, straight mandibles attached close together along the front margin of the head and with teeth only at the mandible tips. They are rare examples of stinging ants. Females have 12-segmented antennae, whereas males have 13-segmented antennae. Behavi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Messelepone
''Messelepone'' is an extinct genus of ants in the formicid subfamily Ponerinae described from fossils found in Europe. ''M. leptogenoides'' is the only species assigned to the genus, which is one of several Lutetian Ponerinae genera. History and classification When described, ''Messelepone'' was known from two fossil insects which are compression-impression fossils preserved in layers of soft sedimentary rock. Along with other well preserved insect fossils, the ''Messelepone'' specimens were collected from layers of the Lutetian Messel pit World Heritage Site. The formation is composed of brown coals, oil shales, and bituminous shale, which preserved numerous insects, fish, birds, reptiles, and terrestrial mammals as a notable lagerstätten. The area is a preserved maar lake which initially formed approximately 47 million years ago as the result of volcanic explosions. At the time of description, the holotype queen and paratype male specimens were preserved in the Se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cephalopone
''Cephalopone'' is an extinct genus of ants in the formicid subfamily Ponerinae described from fossils found in Europe. There are two described species placed into the genus, ''Cephalopone grandis'' and ''Cephalopone potens''. ''Cephalopone'' is one several Lutetian Ponerinae genera. History and classification When described, ''Cephalopone'' was known from three fossil insects which are compression-impression fossils preserved in layers of soft sedimentary rock. Along with other well preserved insect fossils, the ''Cephalopone'' specimens were collected from layers of the Lutetian Messel pit World Heritage Site. The formation is composed of brown coals, oil shales, and bituminous shale, which preserved numerous insects, fish, birds, reptiles, and terrestrial mammals as a notable lagerstätten. The area is a preserved maar lake which initially formed approximately 47 million years ago as the result of volcanic explosions. At the time of description, the holotype and para ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Middle Eocene
The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''Ēṓs'', ' Dawn') and (''kainós'', "new") and refers to the "dawn" of modern ('new') fauna that appeared during the epoch.See: *Letter from William Whewell to Charles Lyell dated 31 January 1831 in: * From p. 55: "The period next antecedent we shall call Eocene, from ήως, aurora, and χαινος, recens, because the extremely small proportion of living species contained in these strata, indicates what may be considered the first commencement, or ''dawn'', of the existing state of the animate creation." The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Paleocene Epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch. The start of the Eocene is marked by a brief period in which the concentration of the carbon isotope 13C in the atmosphere was exceptionally low in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greek Language
Greek (, ; , ) is an Indo-European languages, Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic languages, Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece, Cyprus, Italy (in Calabria and Salento), southern Albania, and other regions of the Balkans, Caucasus, the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor, and the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the list of languages by first written accounts, longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system is the Greek alphabet, which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with the epics of Homer, ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in the European canon. Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antenna (biology)
An antenna (plural: antennae) is one of a pair of appendages used for Sensory system, sensing in arthropods. Antennae are sometimes referred to as ''feelers''. Antennae are connected to the first one or two Segmentation (biology), segments of the arthropod head. They vary widely in form but are always made of one or more jointed segments. While they are typically sensory organs, the exact nature of what they sense and how they sense it is not the same in all groups. Functions may variously include sensing tactition, touch, air motion, heat, vibration (sound), and especially insect olfaction, smell or gustation, taste. Antennae are sometimes modified for other purposes, such as mating, brooding, swimming, and even anchoring the arthropod to a substrate (biology), substrate. Larval arthropods have antennae that differ from those of the adult. Many crustaceans, for example, have free-swimming larvae that use their antennae for swimming. Antennae can also locate other group members i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pachycondyla
''Pachycondyla'' is a Ponerinae, ponerine genus of ants found in the Neotropics. Distribution ''Pachycondyla'' is currently distributed from southern United States to northern Argentina, but some fossil species (e.g. ''Pachycondyla eocenica, P. eocenica'' and ''Pachycondyla lutzi, P. lutzi'') are found in Europe. Species The genus formerly contained hundreds of species, most of them belonging to at the time junior synonyms of ''Pachycondyla''. While revising the ponerines, Schmidt & Shattuck (2014) revived many of the former synonyms, leaving only eleven species in ''Pachycondyla''. They were not able to place some species with certainty, and left more than twenty species ''incertae sedis'' in ''Pachycondyla'', acknowledging that "this placement is undoubtedly incorrect". *''Pachycondyla constricticeps'' Mackay & Mackay, 2010 *''Pachycondyla crassinoda'' (Latreille, 1802) *''Pachycondyla fuscoatra'' (Roger, 1861) *''Pachycondyla harpax'' (Fabricius, 1804) *''Pachycondyla impress ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesosoma
The mesosoma is the middle part of the body, or tagma, of arthropods whose body is composed of three parts, the other two being the prosoma and the metasoma. It bears the legs, and, in the case of winged insects, the wings. Wasps, bees and ants In hymenopterans of the suborder Apocrita (wasps, bees and ants), the mesosoma consists of the three thoracic segments and the first abdominal segment (the propodeum). For historical reasons, in ants it is commonly referred to by the alternative name alitrunk. Encyrtidae head thorax abdomen.jpg, The mesosoma (thorax plus propodeum) and metasoma (remaining segments of the abdomen) of an encyrtid wasp. Scheme ant worker anatomy-en.svg, In the worker ant the mesosoma includes the pronotum, mesonotum, scutellum and the propodeum. The petiole and the gaster comprise the metasoma. Ant closeup.jpg, The mesosoma is clearly visible on this ant: it is the middle section, in between the head and the petiole Arachnids In scorpions, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gyne
The gyne (, from Greek γυνή, "woman") is the primary reproductive female caste of social insects (especially ants, wasps, and bees of order Hymenoptera, as well as termites). Gynes are those destined to become queens, whereas female workers are typically barren and cannot become queens. Having a queen is what makes a "queenright" hive, nest, or colony of eusocial insects. A colony with multiple queens is said to be a polygyne form, whereas one with only one is a monogyne form. The ancient Greek origin of ''gyne'' meant a woman who had given birth to at least one child. In species lacking morphological castes (i.e., where "workers" may not be sterile), the term "gyne" is usually reserved for those females whose entire life is spent as a reproductive or potential reproductive, as opposed to those who start life as a worker and subsequently attain reproductive status (often called a "replacement queen" or a "laying worker"). These can be seen in certain species of stingless be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
