''Amyrmex golbachi'' is a rare

Neotropical The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In biogeogra ...

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

ant Ants are Eusociality, eusocial insects of the Family (biology), family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the Taxonomy (biology), order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from Vespoidea, vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cre ...

and the only known species in the genus ''Amyrmex''. It is currently only known from males from the

Amazon basin The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributary, tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

and from northern

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

Taxonomy

The genus was established by Kusnezov (1953) for four small male ants collected in the Tucumán region of Argentina. Kusnezov recognized a single species, ''Amyrmex golbachi'', which he placed in the subfamily

Dolichoderinae Dolichoderinae is a subfamily of ants, which includes species such as the Argentine ant (''Linepithema humile''), the erratic ant, the odorous house ant, and the cone ant. The subfamily presents a great diversity of species throughout the wor ...

, while noting peculiar features of the wing venation and abdominal

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines *Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts *Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies, ...

that introduced some uncertainty about its affinities. Since its original description, ''Amyrmex'' has received scant attention from ant

taxonomists In biology, taxonomy () is the scientific study of naming, defining ( circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxa (singular: taxon), and these groups are given ...

. In his generic revision of the Dolichoderinae, Shattuck (1992) synonymized ''Amyrmex'' under ''

Forelius ''Forelius'' is a Neotropical genus of ants in the subfamily Dolichoderinae. The genus is known from southern United States to Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. ...

''. Cuezzo (2000) resurrected ''Amyrmex'', pointing out various distinctive features of morphology that do not agree with any known males of ''Forelius''.

Phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

analyses by Ward & Brady (2009) placed ''Amyrmex'' as a sister genus to ''

Leptanilloides ''Leptanilloides'' is a genus of ants in the subfamily Dorylinae. ''Leptanilloides'' is an uncommonly collected genus with subterranean habits in the New World Andean and sub-Andean tropics. Taxonomy With cryptic and eyeless worker ants, the gen ...

'' and a member of the subfamily Leptanilloidinae (now

Dorylinae Dorylinae is an ant subfamily, with distributions in both the Old World and New World. Brady ''et al.'' (2014) Synonym (taxonomy), synonymized the previous dorylomorph subfamilies (Aenictinae, Aenictogitoninae, Cerapachyinae, Ecitoninae, and Lep ...

), rather than the Dolichoderinae to which it had been previously assigned. This placement is also supported by morphological traits.

Distribution

The genus is currently only known from males from the

of Brazil and from northern Argentina. No ''Amyrmex'' specimens have been reported besides the

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

, three

paratype In zoology and botany, a paratype is a specimen of an organism that helps define what the scientific name of a species and other taxon actually represents, but it is not the holotype (and in botany is also neither an isotype (biology), isotype ...

s, one additional series of males from the Kusnezov collection, and a collection of several males discovered from unidentified specimens in the

Bohart Museum of Entomology The Bohart Museum of Entomology was founded in 1946 on the campus of the University of California, Davis. The museum is currently the seventh largest insect collection in North America with more than seven million specimens of terrestrial and ...

, most of which were collected in malaise traps at a

lowland Upland and lowland are conditional descriptions of a plain based on elevation above sea level. In studies of the ecology of freshwater rivers, habitats are classified as upland or lowland. Definitions Upland and lowland are portions of a ...

rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

site in

Rondônia Rondônia () is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the northern subdivision of the country (central-western part). It is bordered by Acre (state), Acre in the west, Amazonas, Brazil, Amazonas in the north, Mato Grosso in the east, and Bo ...

, Brazil, in 1991. The geographical distribution of ''Amyrmex'' suggests it might be a

senior synonym In taxonomy, the scientific classification of living organisms, a synonym is an alternative scientific name for the accepted scientific name of a taxon. The botanical and zoological codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. ...

of the sister genus '' Asphinctanilloides''.

References

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External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q15622775, from2=Q1935071 Dorylinae Monotypic ant genera Hymenoptera of South America