''Adetomyrma cilium'' (from

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

''cilium'', "eyelash", referring to the long hairs on its compound eye) is a species of

ant Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of 22,0 ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

Description

''Adetomyrma cilium'' is only known from males. The male of ''A. cilium'' is distinguished easily from the other ''

Adetomyrma ''Adetomyrma'' is a genus of ants endemic to Madagascar. Workers of this genus are blind. The type species '' Adetomyrma venatrix'' was described in 1994, with the genus being an atypical member of its tribe, the Amblyoponini. This tribe includ ...

'' males by a combination of long hairs on the eye, long suberect hairs on the anterior surface of the mesofemur, and a well-developed subpetiolar process. The species is relatively similar to '' A. clarivida'', but differs in the mesofemur hairs and development of the subpetiolar process. Additionally, these species differ in the shape of the

aedeagus An aedeagus (plural aedeagi) is a reproductive organ of male arthropods through which they secrete sperm from the testes during copulation with a female. It can be thought of as the insect equivalent of a mammal's penis, though the compariso ...

and the

palpal Pedipalps (commonly shortened to palps or palpi) are the second pair of appendages of chelicerates – a group of arthropods including spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, and sea spiders. The pedipalps are lateral to the chelicerae ("jaws") an ...

formula.

References

* * Amblyoponinae Blind animals Insects described in 2012 Hymenoptera of Africa Endemic fauna of Madagascar {{ant-stub