''Petalomyrmex'' (from
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
''petalos'', "flattened" + ''myrmex'', "ant") is a
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...
of
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 in the
subfamily
In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...
Formicinae
The Formicinae are a subfamily within the Formicidae containing ants of moderate evolutionary development.
Formicines retain some primitive features, such as the presence of cocoons around pupae, the presence of ocelli in workers, and little ...
.
It contains the
single species ''Petalomyrmex phylax'', known only from
Cameroon
Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...
. The genus is closely related to ''
Aphomomyrmex
''Aphomomyrmex'' is a genus of ants in the subfamily Formicinae. It contains the single species ''Aphomomyrmex afer'', known from Africa (Cameroon and South Africa). The genus is closely related to ''Petalomyrmex
''Petalomyrmex'' (from Gree ...
''.
References
External links
*
Endemic fauna of Cameroon
Formicinae
Monotypic ant genera
Hymenoptera of Africa
{{formicinae-stub