''Dicroaspis'' is an African
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
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 ...
s in the
subfamily Myrmicinae.
Distribution
Known from central Africa, the genus contains two species. However, due to the little material available, they may represent variations the same species.
A third hitherto undescribed species is known from
Kakamega Forest
Kakamega Forest is a tropical rainforest situated in the Kakamega and Nandi
County of Kenya, northwest of the capital Nairobi, and near to the border with Uganda. It is Kenya's only tropical rainforest and is said to be Kenya's last remnant of ...
,
Kenya
)
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...
.
Description
The genus was first described by
Emery (1908), but was reclassified a few years later as a
subgenus of ''
Calyptomyrmex
''Calyptomyrmex'' is a genus of ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae. The genus is distributed from Africa to India and east to New Caledonia. They are mainly found in the rainforest
Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tre ...
'' by Emery (1915). The
taxon
In biology, a taxon ( back-formation from '' taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular n ...
was finally raised to genus rank by Bolton (1981). Workers are about 2.5–3 mm long and have small eyes. Their
antennae with 11 segments can be used to separate ''Dicroaspis'' from the related and similar genus ''Calyptomyrmex''.
Little is known about their biology, but they appear to live in the
leaf litter
Plant litter (also leaf litter, tree litter, soil litter, litterfall or duff) is dead plant material (such as leaves, bark, needles, twigs, and cladodes) that have fallen to the ground. This detritus or dead organic material and its constituent ...
of
rainforests.
Species
* ''
Dicroaspis cryptocera''
Emery, 1908
* ''
Dicroaspis laevidens''
( Santschi, 1919)
References
*Emery, C. (1908). "Descriptions d'une genre nouveau et de plusieurs formes nouvelles de fourmis du Congo". ''Annales de la Société Entomologique de Belgique'' 52: 184–189.
*Emery, C. (1915). "Formiche raccolte nell'Eritrea dal Prof. F. Silvestri". ''Bollettino del Laboratorio di Zoologia Generale e Agraria della Reale Scuola Superiore d'Agricoltura. Portici'' 10: 3-26.
External links
*
Myrmicinae
Ant genera
Hymenoptera of Africa
{{myrmicinae-stub