''Protanilla'' is a

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 subterranean

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 Leptanillinae. Known from the Indomalayan realm, the genus contains about thirteen species. The genus was erected by Taylor (1990) for the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...

''P. rafflesi'', described from workers from

Peninsular Malaysia Peninsular Malaysia ( ms, Semenanjung Malaysia; Jawi: سمننجڠ مليسيا), or the States of Malaya ( ms, Negeri-negeri Tanah Melayu; Jawi: نڬري-نڬري تانه ملايو), also known as West Malaysia or the Malaysian Peninsula, ...

. Species in this genus have long and downcurved mandibles with peg-like tooth on the inner margins. Four species are known from China (''P. bicolor'', ''P. concolor'', ''P. gengma'' and ''P. tibeta''), one from

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

(''P. lini''), one from Sri Lanka (''P. schoedli'') and a couple from

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

(''P. wardi'', ''P. flamma'').

Species

*'' Protanilla beijingensis'' Man ''et al.'', 2017 *'' Protanilla bicolor'' Xu, 2002 *'' Protanilla concolor'' Xu, 2002 *'' Protanilla flamma'' Baidya & Bagchi, 2020 *'' Protanilla furcomandibula'' Xu & Zhang, 2002 *'' Protanilla gengma'' Xu, 2012 *'' Protanilla izanagi'' Terayama, 2013 *'' Protanilla jongi'' Hsu ''et al.'', 2017 *'' Protanilla lini'' Terayama, 2009 *'' Protanilla rafflesi'' Taylor, 1990 *'' Protanilla schoedli'' Baroni Urbani & De Andrade, 2006 *'' Protanilla tibeta'' Xu, 2012 *'' Protanilla wardi'' Bharti & Akbar, 2015

References

External links

* Leptanillinae Ant genera Hymenoptera of Asia {{ant-stub