@article{06b6c1cb2ce34789b003593de6718c2b,
title = "New remarkable hell ants (Formicidae: Haidomyrmecinae stat. nov.) from mid-Cretaceous amber of northern Myanmar",
abstract = "Haidomyrmecines (hell ants) are a group of putatively predatory ants defined by mandibles that are dorsoventrally expanded, and highly modified heads with a variety of cranial appendages. These ants are known exclusively from three Cretaceous amber deposits in France, Myanmar, and Canada. Here we describe four new genera and five new species from specimens preserved in mid-Cretaceous (uppermost Albian–lowermost Cenomanian, ca. 99 Ma) amber from the Kachin State of northern Myanmar: Dhagnathos autokrator gen. et sp. nov., Chonidris insolita gen. et sp. nov., Aquilomyrmex huangi gen. et sp. nov., Protoceratomyrmex revelatus gen. et sp. nov., and Linguamyrmex brevicornis sp. nov. We propose a new subfamilial rank for hell ants, i.e., Haidomyrmecinae stat. nov., based on recent phylogenetic analyses. A diagnosis and a key to the genera and species of Haidomyrmecinae are provided. The mouthparts and cranial features of these remarkable taxa display a series of morphological syndromes that likely relate to specialized prey capture. The diversity of these and other described hell ants underscores the extensive radiation of adaptive forms that were present early in ant evolution.",
keywords = "Haidomyrmecinae, Hymenoptera, Kachin amber, Myanmar, Stem-group ants",
author = "Vincent Perrichot and Bo Wang and Phillip Barden",
note = "Funding Information: We are grateful to Fangyuan Xia (Shanghai), Yiren Huang (Taiwan), Edward Liu (Hong Kong), Yan Liu (Jinan) for access to specimens from their collection. We thank Sieghard Ellenberger (Kassel, Germany) and Tyler Janovitz (Massachusetts, USA) for authorization to use the photograph of specimen TJ41-020; Martina Decker, Oliver Budd, Jackson Fordham, and Victor Nzegwu at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NIJT) for 3D model reconstruction used in figure 1 ; and Dinghua Yang (NIGPAS) for artistic reconstruction of heads. We are also thankful to Michael Engel and an anonymous reviewer for their insightful comments of the manuscript, as well as to Eduardo Koutsoukos, for his input as editor. This research was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences ( XDB26000000 and XDA19050101 ) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China ( 41688103 ). Funding Information: We are grateful to Fangyuan Xia (Shanghai), Yiren Huang (Taiwan), Edward Liu (Hong Kong), Yan Liu (Jinan) for access to specimens from their collection. We thank Sieghard Ellenberger (Kassel, Germany) and Tyler Janovitz (Massachusetts, USA) for authorization to use the photograph of specimen TJ41-020; Martina Decker, Oliver Budd, Jackson Fordham, and Victor Nzegwu at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NIJT) for 3D model reconstruction used in figure 1; and Dinghua Yang (NIGPAS) for artistic reconstruction of heads. We are also thankful to Michael Engel and an anonymous reviewer for their insightful comments of the manuscript, as well as to Eduardo Koutsoukos, for his input as editor. This research was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB26000000 and XDA19050101) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41688103). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 Elsevier Ltd",
year = "2020",
month = may,
doi = "10.1016/j.cretres.2020.104381",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "109",
journal = "Cretaceous Research",
issn = "0195-6671",
publisher = "Academic Press Inc.",
}