''Discothyrea'' is a
genus
Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...
of small
ant
Ants are Eusociality, eusocial insects of the Family (biology), family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the Taxonomy (biology), order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from Vespoidea, vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cre ...
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 botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...
Proceratiinae
Proceratiinae is a subfamily of ants in the poneromorph subfamilies group, with three extant genera, of which most are tropical or subtropical, although overall distribution is worldwide.
Identification
The ants are relatively small to medium ...
.
The genus is distributed in the
tropics
The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...
and
subtropics
The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical and climate zones immediately to the north and south of the tropics. Geographically part of the temperate zones of both hemispheres, they cover the middle latitudes from to approximately ...
throughout the world, where they usually nest in rotten wood, 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 has fallen to the ground. This detritus or dead organic material and its constituen ...
, or under stones.
Little is known about their biology, but ants in this genus are thought to be specialist predators of
arthropod
Arthropods ( ) are invertebrates in the phylum Arthropoda. They possess an arthropod exoskeleton, exoskeleton with a cuticle made of chitin, often Mineralization (biology), mineralised with calcium carbonate, a body with differentiated (Metam ...
eggs and have been observed storing eggs in their nests (probably
spider
Spiders (order (biology), order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude spider silk, silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and ran ...
eggs).
Species
*''
Discothyrea antarctica''
Emery, 1895
*''
Discothyrea banna''
Xu, Burwell & Nakamura, 2014
*''
Discothyrea berlita''
Fisher, 2005
*''
Discothyrea bidens''
Clark, 1928
*''
Discothyrea bryanti''
(Wheeler, 1917)
*''
Discothyrea clavicornis''
Emery, 1897
*''
Discothyrea crassicornis''
Clark, 1926
*''
Discothyrea denticulata''
Weber, 1939
*''
Discothyrea diana''
Xu, Burwell & Nakamura, 2014
*†''
Discothyrea gigas''
De Andrade, 1998
*''
Discothyrea globa''
Forel, 1905
*''
Discothyrea hewitti''
Arnold, 1916
*''
Discothyrea horni''
Menozzi, 1927
*''
Discothyrea humilis''
Weber, 1939
*''
Discothyrea icta''
Weber, 1939
*''
Discothyrea isthmica''
Weber, 1940
*''
Discothyrea kamiteta''
Kubota & Terayama, 1999
*''
Discothyrea leae''
Clark, 1934
*†''
Discothyrea maya''
De Andrade, 1998
*''
Discothyrea mixta''
Brown, 1958
*''
Discothyrea neotropica''
Bruch, 1919
*''
Discothyrea oculata''
Emery, 1901
*''
Discothyrea patrizii''
Weber, 1949
*''
Discothyrea poweri''
(Arnold, 1916)
*''
Discothyrea remingtoni''
Brown, 1948
*''
Discothyrea sauteri''
Forel, 1912
*''
Discothyrea sculptior''
Santschi, 1913
*''
Discothyrea sexarticulata''
Borgmeier, 1954
*''
Discothyrea soesilae''
Makhan, 2007
*''
Discothyrea sringerensis''
Zacharias & Rajan, 2004
*''
Discothyrea stumperi''
Baroni Urbani, 1977
*''
Discothyrea testacea''
Roger, 1863
*''
Discothyrea traegaordhi''
Santschi, 1914
*''
Discothyrea turtoni''
Clark, 1934
*''
Discothyrea velutina''
(Wheeler, 1916)
*''
Discothyrea yueshen''
Terayama, 2009
References
External links
*
Proceratiinae
Ant genera
Taxa described in 1861
Taxa named by Julius Roger
{{ant-stub