Desyopone, Boudinot & Richter & Hammel & Szwedo & Bojarski & Perrichot, 2022

Boudinot, Brendon E., Richter, Adrian K., Hammel, Jörg U., Szwedo, Jacek, Bojarski, Błażej & Perrichot, Vincent, 2022, Genomic-Phenomic Reciprocal Illumination: Desyopone hereon gen. et sp. nov., an Exceptional Aneuretine-like Fossil Ant from Ethiopian Amber (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Ponerinae), Insects 73 (796), pp. 1-19 : 8

Genus † Desyopone gen. nov. Boudinot and Perrichot

Type species. † Desyopone hereon sp. nov., by present designation monotypy.

ZooBank LSID: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:7228E671-DF5E-44D1-ADE6-62FB6DB34220 .

Etymology. The genus name is a portmanteau of the traditional ponerine generic suffix, “-pone”, and the acronym for the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), whose storage ring and radiation beamline facilities were used to generate the phenomic data that were crucial for the correct identification of the new taxon.

Diagnosis. † Desyopone has plesiomorphies 1–4 of Ponerinae and is identifiable as Ponerini at minimum due to the vestigial mandibles and infraaxial helcium. † Desyopone and Cryptopone are uniquely identified among all Ponerinae by: (1) subpetiolar process completely absent, with the poststernite low and nearly flat in profile. The new genus differs from the males of all known Cryptopone by the following: (2) head broader than long, excluding the compound eyes (vs. head narrower than long); (3) mandibles elongate (vs. short); (4) mandibles lobate (vs. spiniform); (5) mesospiracular sclerite evidently absent (vs. this sclerite present); (6) meso- and metatibiae with no spur and one spur, respectively (vs. two spurs each); and (7) petiolar peduncle long, about as long as node is tall (vs. peduncle short, considerable shorter than height of node).

Remarks. The identity of Cryptopone is significantly clarified by the phenomic data from the new species and the phylogenomic revision of Branstetter and Longino [ 50]. Prior to this work, the diagnostic importance of the absent subpetiolar process was obscured by the inclusion of Wadeura guianensis in Cryptopone . Now it is clear that the absence of the subpetiolar process is a unique condition among extant Ponerinae that is shared between † Desyopone gen. nov. and Cryptopone , and thus constitutes a reasonable autapomorphy within the subfamily for the two genera. No known Cryptopone , however, matches the diagnostic character combination of † Desyopone gen. nov., with conditions 3–7 being apomorphic. Critically, the elongate peduncle of † D. hereon gen. et sp. nov. is nearly unique among Ponerinae ; this condition is similarly derived in Harpegnathos and is approached by Dinoponera , some Odontomachus (e.g., O. chelifer , O. coquereli ), and Platythyrea (although node at middle of segment rather than posterior).