''Onychomyrmex'' is an Australian

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 ...

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

Amblyoponinae Amblyoponinae is a subfamily of ants in the poneromorph subfamilies group containing 13 extant genera and one extinct genus. The ants in this subfamily are mostly specialized subterranean predators. Adult workers pierce the integument (non letha ...

. Its three species are known from eastern

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

, Australia. Although not true

army ant The name army ant (or legionary ant or ''marabunta'') is applied to over 200 ant species in different lineages. Because of their aggressive predatory foraging groups, known as "raids", a huge number of ants forage simultaneously over a limi ...

s, ''Onychomyrmex'' species display an army-ant life style, including group predation and nomadism.

Distribution

The genus is known from

, Australia, where it is found living mainly in rotten logs in the rainforests along the eastern coast. Their distribution may range into the northeastern

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. The type localities of the three species are: Kuranda (''O. doddi''),

Mount Bellenden Ker Mount Bellenden Ker is the second-highest mountain in Queensland, Australia, with a height of . It is named after the botanist John Bellenden Ker Gawler. Located south of Cairns, Queensland, Cairns near Babinda, Queensland, Babinda, it is adj ...

(''O. hedleyi'') and Herberton (''O. mjobergi'').

Description

Species have an army-ant life style, including group predation and nomadism. Queens are similar to the true army ants (subfamily

Dorylinae Dorylinae is an ant subfamily, with distributions in both the Old World and New World. Brady ''et al.'' (2014) synonymized the previous dorylomorph subfamilies (Aenictinae, Aenictogitoninae, Cerapachyinae, Ecitoninae, and Leptanilloidinae) unde ...

). That is, ''Onychomyrmex'' queens are dichthadiiform, having a broadened head, very small eyes, worker-like

alitrunk 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 ...

without wings or

sclerite A sclerite (Greek , ', meaning " hard") is a hardened body part. In various branches of biology the term is applied to various structures, but not as a rule to vertebrate anatomical features such as bones and teeth. Instead it refers most commonly ...

s, and an elongated bulky gaster. However, belonging to the

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confli ...

Amblyoponini, they are evidently amblyoponines and the army-ant like characters are deemed to have evolved through

convergent evolution Convergent evolution is the independent evolution of similar features in species of different periods or epochs in time. Convergent evolution creates analogous structures that have similar form or function but were not present in the last com ...

. Workers are more slender and have longer appendages than '' Amblyopone''. Workers of ''O. hedleyi'' and ''O. doddi'' have been reported to forage in small groups ''en masse'', like the true army ants. ''O. hedleyi'' are predators of insects, mainly centipedes. Larger prey are not dismember at the prey site, instead nestmates are recruited to retrieve the prey in group. When prey too large to carry are encountered, the ants relocate their bivouac (a structure formed by migratory ants, constructed out of the body of living ant workers), up to 150 meters.

Species

*'' Onychomyrmex doddi'' Wheeler, 1916 *'' Onychomyrmex hedleyi'' Emery, 1895 *'' Onychomyrmex mjobergi'' Forel, 1915

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q14445710 Amblyoponinae Ant genera Hymenoptera of Australia