''Ancyridris'' is a small genus of

myrmicine Myrmicinae is a subfamily of ants, with about 140 extant genera; their distribution is cosmopolitan. The pupae lack cocoons. Some species retain a functional sting. The petioles of Myrmicinae consist of two nodes. The nests are permanent and ...

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 ...

s, with only two described species from

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

Description

The eyes are well developed. The long and narrow

mesosoma The mesosoma is the middle part of the body, or tagma, of arthropods whose body is composed of three parts, the other two being the prosoma and the metasoma. It bears the legs, and, in the case of winged insects, the wings. In hymenopterans of t ...

is shaped somewhat as in ''

Aphaenogaster ''Aphaenogaster'' is a genus of myrmicine ants. About 200 species have been described, including 18 fossil species. They occur worldwide except in South America south of Colombia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Antarctica. They are often confused w ...

''. The

propodeum The propodeum or propodium is the first abdominal segment in Apocrita Hymenoptera (wasps, bees and ants). It is fused with the thorax to form the mesosoma. It is a single large sclerite, not subdivided, and bears a pair of spiracles. It is strongl ...

bears two long, flattened, hooked spines resembling those of ''

Polyrhachis ''Polyrhachis'' is a genus of formicine ants found in the Old World with over 600 species. The genus is yet to be comprehensively resolved and contains many varied species including nest-weavers (e.g. ''Polyrhachis dives''), swimming workers ( ...

bihamata''. On the

pronotum The prothorax is the foremost of the three segments in the thorax of an insect, and bears the first pair of legs. Its principal sclerites (exoskeletal plates) are the pronotum (dorsal), the prosternum (ventral), and the propleuron (lateral) on ea ...

there are long hairs. The worker of ''A. polyrhachioides'' is almost 6 mm long. Apart from the curious anchor-like spines on its propodeum, ''Ancyridris'' bears a general resemblance to ''Aphaenogaster'' or certain worker forms of ''

Pheidole ''Pheidole'' is a genus of ants that belongs to the ant subfamily Myrmicinae. The genus is widespread and ecologically dominant. It probably includes more than 1000 species. The genus first evolved in the Americas, eventually spreading across th ...

''. Wheeler suspected some aberrant or archaic group, "another of the living fossils which are continually turning up in the Papuan and Australian Regions". ''Ancyridris'' in fact seems close to ''

Lordomyrma ''Lordomyrma'' is a genus of ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae. Distribution and habitat The genus is known principally from Melanesia and Australia, with the one exception to this otherwise circumscribed distribution being the single species '' ...

''. It is the only ant genus currently thought to be endemic to the island of New Guinea. ''A. rupicapra'' was originally described in the genus ''Pheidole ( Pheidolacanthinus)''. Its workers are 4 mm long. ''A. polyrhachioides'' is black, and ''A. rupicapra'' reddish-brown (as implied by its

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

which translates as "red goat", referring as well to the goat-horn like propodeal spines. The sole known rupicapra specimen was collected in the mountains of the Sepik River catchment by the German colonial Kaiserin Augustafluss Expedition (1912–13). The two original type specimens of ''A. polyrhachioides'' were recovered somewhat damaged from the stomach of an eastern blue-grey robin (''Peneothello cyanus subcyaneus'') which was caught on Mount Misim in the Morobe District of New Guinea.

Name

The genus name is derived from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

αγκυρος "

anchor An anchor is a device, normally made of metal , used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ''ancora'', which itself comes from the Greek ἄγ ...

" and ιδρις "the knowing/provident one",

Hesiod Hesiod (; grc-gre, Ἡσίοδος ''Hēsíodos'') was an ancient Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded by western authors as 'the first written poet i ...

's name for an ant,in: Works and Days, verse 778, in the text adopted in the Loeb Classical Library probably '' Messor barbarus'' or '' M. structor''.

References

External links

* * AntWeb
Pictures of ''Ancyridris'' species
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1314658 Myrmicinae Ant genera