Armaniidae
Armaniidae was a name formerly given to a group of extinct ant-like hymenopterans known from a series of Cretaceous fossils found in Asia and Africa. Armaniidae has been suggested by several authors to belong to the family Formicidae as one of the stem-group subfamilies, Armaniinae; however, this position has not been taken up by myrmecologists. The family contained seven described genera and thirteen described species. An analysis of fossil ants based on antenna structure in 2017 resulted in three of the family being broken up with some genera being moved to Sphecomyrminae and other genera being relegated to ''incertae sedis'' in Formicidae or Aculeata. History and classification Armaniidae was sometimes treated as the most basal of the Formicidae subfamilies, and classed as a stem-group which is more distant in relation to modern ants than the next stem group, Sphecomyrminae. More often the group, treated as "ant-like wasps", was elevated to the rank of family, and consider ...
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Sphecomyrminae
Sphecomyrminae is an extinct subfamily of ants in family Formicidae known from a series of Cretaceous fossils found in North America, Europe, and Asia. Sphecomyrminae contains eight genera, divided into two tribes Sphecomyrmini and Zigrasimeciini. The tribe Sphecomyrmini contains the six genera '' Armania'', '' Cretomyrma'', ''Gerontoformica'', '' Orapia'', '' Pseudarmania'' and ''Sphecomyrma''; while Zigrasimeciini contains ''Boltonimecia'' and ''Zigrasimecia''. A number of taxa have been removed from the subfamily and placed either in other subfamilies or are now treated as ''incertae sedis'' in Formicidae. Sphecomyrminae is the most basal of the Formicidae subfamilies, but has not been included in several phylogenetic studies of the family. Symplesiomorphies of the subfamily include the structure of the antenna, which has a short basal segment and a flexible group of segments below the antenna tip. The petiole is low and rounded, with an unrestricted gaster and the presence of ...
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Armania (insect)
Armania may refer to: * a misspelling of Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * ''Armania'' (plant), a synonym for ''Encelia'', a genus of the plant family Asteraceae * ''Armania'' (insect) Dlussky, 1983, a genus of fossil ant-relatives, the type of the family Armaniidae * ''Armania'' (mammal) Gabunia and Dashzeveg 1988, a genus of prehistoric mammals in the family Amynodontidae Amynodontidae ("defensive tooth") is a family of extinct perissodactyls related to true rhinoceroses. They are commonly portrayed as semiaquatic hippo-like rhinos but this description only fits members of the Metamynodontini; other groups of a ...

Dlusskyidris
''Dlusskyidris'' is an extinct genus of ant in the Formicidae subfamily Sphecomyrminae, and is one of the five genera placed in the tribe Sphecomyrmini. The genus contains a single described species, ''Dlusskyidris zherichini'', and is known from three Late Cretaceous fossils which have been found in northern Russia. History and classification The three males of ''Dlusskyidris'' have been identified from adults that are preserved as inclusions in Taymyr amber. The ambers of the peninsula occur in the upper levels of the Kheta Formation, which is exposed in a number of locations in the Taimyr region. Age estimates of the Kheta Formation are between the Coniacian and Santonian, and the ambers are found consistently in the uppermost units, giving a Santonian age range for the inclusions. The ''Dlusskyidris'' adults were collected from the Yantardakh locality, which is approximately upstream from the confluence of the Maimecha River with the Kheta River, on the bank of the ...
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Extinct
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point. Because a species' potential range may be very large, determining this moment is difficult, and is usually done retrospectively. This difficulty leads to phenomena such as Lazarus taxa, where a species presumed extinct abruptly "reappears" (typically in the fossil record) after a period of apparent absence. More than 99% of all species that ever lived on Earth, amounting to over five billion species, are estimated to have died out. It is estimated that there are currently around 8.7 million species of eukaryote globally, and possibly many times more if microorganisms, like bacteria, are included. Notable extinct animal species include non-avian dinosaurs, saber-toothed cats, dodos, m ...
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Vespidae
The Vespidae are a large (nearly 5000 species), diverse, cosmopolitan family of wasps, including nearly all the known eusocial wasps (such as ''Polistes fuscatus'', ''Vespa orientalis'', and ''Vespula germanica'') and many solitary wasps. Each social wasp colony includes a queen and a number of female workers with varying degrees of sterility relative to the queen. In temperate social species, colonies usually last only one year, dying at the onset of winter. New queens and males (drones) are produced towards the end of the summer, and after mating, the queens hibernate over winter in cracks or other sheltered locations. The nests of most species are constructed out of mud, but polistines and vespines use plant fibers, chewed to form a sort of paper (also true of some stenogastrines). Many species are pollen vectors contributing to the pollination of several plants, being potential or even effective pollinators, while others are notable predators of pest insect species. The sub ...
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Cretaceous Insects
The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of the entire Phanerozoic. The name is derived from the Latin ''creta'', "chalk", which is abundant in the latter half of the period. It is usually abbreviated K, for its German translation ''Kreide''. The Cretaceous was a period with a relatively warm climate, resulting in high eustatic sea levels that created numerous shallow inland seas. These oceans and seas were populated with now- extinct marine reptiles, ammonites, and rudists, while dinosaurs continued to dominate on land. The world was ice free, and forests extended to the poles. During this time, new groups of mammals and birds appeared. During the Early Cretaceous, flowering plants appeared and began to rapidly diversify, becoming the dominant group of plants across the Earth ...
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Ants
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 22,000 species have been classified. They are easily identified by their geniculate (elbowed) antennae and the distinctive node-like structure that forms their slender waists. Ants form colonies that range in size from a few dozen predatory individuals living in small natural cavities to highly organised colonies that may occupy large territories and consist of millions of individuals. Larger colonies consist of various castes of sterile, wingless females, most of which are workers (ergates), as well as soldiers (dinergates) and other specialised groups. Nearly all ant colonies also have some fertile males called "drones" and one or more fertile females called "queens" (gynes). The colonies are described as superorganisms because the ants appea ...
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