''Thaumatomyrmex'' is a

Neotropical The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In bioge ...

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 In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classifica ...

Ponerinae Ponerinae is a subfamily of ants in the Poneromorph subfamilies group, with about 1,600 species in 47 extant genera, including '' Dinoponera gigantea'' - one of the world's largest species of ant. Mated workers have replaced the queen as the ...

, found from

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. They are notable for their pitchfork-shaped mandibles, which they use to capture

millipede Millipedes are a group of arthropods that are characterised by having two pairs of jointed legs on most body segments; they are known scientifically as the class Diplopoda, the name derived from this feature. Each double-legged segment is a resu ...

s of the order

Polyxenida Polyxenida is an order of millipedes readily distinguished by a unique body plan consisting of a soft, non-calcified body ornamented with tufts of bristles – traits that have inspired the common names "bristly millipedes" or "pincushion millipe ...

. The genus is a specialist predator of polyxenids, and one of only two ant genera known to prey upon polyxenids.

Taxonomy and phylogenetics

Thaumatomyrmex mandibularis casent0173030 head 1

The genus was established by

Mayr Mayr is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Andrea Mayr (born 1979), Austrian female long-distance runner * Ernst Mayr (1904–2005), German American evolutionary biologist * Georg Mayr (1564–1623), Bavarian Jesuit pries ...

in 1877 to house the single species ''Thaumatomyrmex mutilatus'', discovered in Brazil. Since its inception, the genus has been placed in various

tribes 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 ...

: Ectatommini,

Ponerini Ponerini is a tribe of Ponerinae ants with 46 genera and 6 extinct genera. Genera *'' Anochetus'' *†'' Archiponera'' *'' Asphinctopone'' *'' Austroponera'' *''Belonopelta'' *''Boloponera'' *''Bothroponera'' *''Brachyponera'' *'' Buni ...

, Cylindromyrmicini, and its own tribe, Thaumatomyrmecini.

Molecular phylogeny Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

by Schmidt & Shattuck (2014) confirmed that the genus is nested within Ponerini. Twelve species has been described, and a few undescribed taxa are known.

Distribution

''Thaumatomyrmex'' is found only in the Neotropics, from Mexico to Brazil (including

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribb ...

and other Caribbean islands). The genus was once thought to be rare, but with better sampling techniques, the ants are now found more frequently.

Description

Workers are small in size (3.3–5.0 mm) and have pitchfork-shaped mandibles with three long teeth. They are specialist predators of

s of the order

. Polyxenids are an unusual type of prey, only known to be preyed upon by ''Thaumatomyrmex'' and ''

Probolomyrmex ''Probolomyrmex'' is a genus of ants in the subfamily Proceratiinae. The genus is distributed throughout the tropics and subtropics. The ants are very rare, and are rarely collected in the field, but they appear to be nesting in the leaf litter ...

'' ants. The millipedes are covered with hooked bristle setae, which entangles potential predators. ''Thaumatomyrmex'' use their long mandibles to hold the polyxenids before immobilizing them by stinging, and then stripping the prey from their protective setae. The brush-like hairs on the workers' legs are used to scrape the setae off "like cleaning a chicken".

E. O. Wilson Edward Osborne Wilson (June 10, 1929 – December 26, 2021) was an American biologist, naturalist, entomologist and writer. According to David Attenborough, Wilson was the world's leading expert in his specialty of myrmecology, the study of an ...

(professor emeritus, Harvard) in an interview in New Scientist issue No3005 page 29 Workers forage individually in the leaf litter.

Alate Alate (Latin ''ālātus'', from ''āla'' (“wing”)) is an adjective and noun used in entomology and botany to refer to something that has wings or winglike structures. In entomology In entomology, "alate" usually refers to the winged form o ...

queens remain undescribed, although Kempf (1975) mentioned an alate ''T. zeteki'' queen in the collections of the U.S. National Museum, this has however never been confirmed. Gamergates (reproductive female workers) are known from at least two species (''T. atrox'' and ''T. contumax'').

Species

*'' Thaumatomyrmex atrox'' Weber, 1939 *'' Thaumatomyrmex bariay'' Fontenla Rizo, 1995 *'' Thaumatomyrmex cochlearis'' Creighton, 1928 *'' Thaumatomyrmex contumax'' Kempf, 1975 *'' Thaumatomyrmex ferox'' Mann, 1922 *'' Thaumatomyrmex mandibularis'' Baroni Urbani & De Andrade, 2003 *'' Thaumatomyrmex manni'' Weber, 1939 *'' Thaumatomyrmex mutilatus'' Mayr, 1887 *'' Thaumatomyrmex nageli'' Baroni Urbani & De Andrade, 2003 *'' Thaumatomyrmex paludis'' Weber, 1942 *'' Thaumatomyrmex soesilae'' Makhan, 2007 *'' Thaumatomyrmex zeteki'' Smith, 1944

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q3496512 Ponerinae Ant genera Hymenoptera of North America Hymenoptera of South America