''Haidomyrmodes'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

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 ...

in the formicid subfamily

Haidomyrmecinae Haidomyrmecinae, occasionally called hell ants, are an extinct subfamily of ants (Formicidae) known from Cretaceous fossils primarily found in amber from North America, South America, Europe, and Asia, spanning the late Aptian to Campanian, aroun ...

, and is one of only nine genera placed in the subfamily

. The genus contains a single described species, ''Haidomyrmodes mammuthus''. ''Haidomyrmodes'' is known from several

Middle Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ninth and longest geologi ...

fossils which have been found in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

History and classification

''Haidomyrmodes'' is known from a group of three fossils, 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 ...

, specimen number "MNHN ARC 50.2", and the

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 "MNHN ARC 242" and "MNHN AIX 1.2". All three specimens are housed in the fossil collections of the Department of Earth History,

Muséum national d'histoire naturelle The French National Museum of Natural History ( ; abbr. MNHN) is the national natural history museum of France and a of higher education part of Sorbonne University. The main museum, with four galleries, is located in Paris, France, within the Ja ...

Paris, France Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. The holotype specimen is composed of a mostly complete winged adult female, while the paratypes are both of incomplete worker caste members. All of the specimens are preserved as inclusions in transparent chunks of Late Albian to Early Cenomanian Charentese amber found in the

Charente-Maritime Charente-Maritime (; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Chérente-Marine''; ) is a Departments of France, department in the French Regions of France, region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, on the country's west coast. Named after the river Charente (river), Charen ...

area of France. MNHNA30163 Haidomyrmodes mammuthus 01

The fossil was first studied by a team of paleoentomologists led by Vincent Perrichot of the

Humboldt University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

. The team's 2008 type description of the new genus and species was published in the journal ''

Naturwissenschaften ''The Science of Nature'', formerly ''Naturwissenschaften'', is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Springer Science+Business Media covering all aspects of the natural sciences relating to questions of biological significance. I ...

''. The genus name ''Haidomyrmodes'' was coined by Perrichot ''et al'' as a combination of '' Haidomyrmex'', the type genus for Haidomyrmecini, and the suffix ''-odes'' meaning "with the form of". The

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

''mammuthus'' is a reference to the resemblance between the species' mandibles and the tusks of a mammoth. ''Haidomyrmodes'' is one of five genera in Haidomyrmecini, the other four being '' Ceratomyrmex'', '' Linguamyrmex'', '' Haidomyrmex'', and '' Haidoterminus''.

Description

The ''Haidomyrmodes'' holotype

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 ...

has a similar structure to species of '' Haidomyrmex''. The mandibles very large and well developed with an L-shaped appearance in side view. In both genera the clypeus has a pair of elongated

seta In biology, setae (; seta ; ) are any of a number of different bristle- or hair-like structures on living organisms. Animal setae Protostomes Depending partly on their form and function, protostome setae may be called macrotrichia, chaetae, ...

e and the genae are elongated. The two genera can be told apart by the placement of the bend in the mandible, with ''Haidomyrmodes'' having a more basal bend, and mandibles that are positioned closer to the head when closed. The holotype is overall approximately with a distinct pair of

ocelli A simple eye or ocellus (sometimes called a pigment pit) is a form of eye or an optical arrangement which has a single lens without the sort of elaborate retina that occurs in most vertebrates. These eyes are called "simple" to distinguish the ...

and large eyes. The clypeus has a concave structure to it in side view and without and setae. In contrast the two paratype specimens, identified as possible worker caste individuals, differ in the structure from the gyne in several ways. Overall they are smaller than the gyne, and have a basal mandible section shorter than that of the gyne, with two long setae and antennae which are shorter.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from1=Q16753241, from2=Q16938048 Monotypic fossil ant genera Cretaceous insects Fossil taxa described in 2008 † Haidomyrmecinae