Protrechina Wilson, 1985

Boudinot, Brendon E., Borowiec, Marek L. & Prebus, Matthew M., 2022, Phylogeny, evolution, and classification of the ant genus Lasius, the tribe Lasiini and the subfamily Formicinae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), Systematic Entomology 47, pp. 113-151 : 133

On the identity of † Protrechina Wilson :

Wilson (1985) described a genus putatively close to Paratrechina sensu lato (∼ Prenolepis genus group) from mid-Eocene Claiborne amber (Arkansas, 40.4–37.2 Ma; Saunders et al., 1974). This genus, † Protrechina , supposedly differs from Paratrechina s. l., Lepisiota Santschi and Brachymyrmex Mayr – among other, unstated formicines – by the absence of standing macrosetae on the mesosomal dorsum, a state similar to that observed for Metalasius gen.nov. as noted below. The genus has been variably treated as a lasiine ( Bolton, 1994, 1995; LaPolla & Dlussky, 2010), a ‘prenolepidine’ ( Hölldobler & Wilson, 1990), or as incertae sedis in the subfamily where it remains at present ( Wilson, 1985; Dlussky & Fedoseeva 1988; Bolton, 2003; Ward et al., 2016). The type specimen of † Protrechina carpenteri Wilson , at the Museum of Comparative Zoology (Harvard), should be reexamined to evaluate its tribal, and perhaps generic, placement. This would be particularly valuable given the approximately mid-Eocene origin of the Prenolepis genus group here inferred ( Fig. 4 ; Table 5); such a study will be facilitated by use of micro-CT (e.g., Hita-Garcia et al., 2017; Barden et al., 2017b; Boudinot et al., in press), given the poor condition of the specimen reported by LaPolla & Dlussky (2010).

Figures

Fig. 4. Results from phylogenetic analysis of the Lasiini_w_outgroups_w_fossils_154t combined morphological and molecular dataset analyzed with MrBayes using the fossilized birth-death branch length prior and the IGR clock variation prior. Fossil taxa are indicated by a dagger preceding the name. Node support values are in Bayesian posterior probability. Filled circles indicate full support. Horizontal blue bars at nodes are 95% highest posterior density (HPD) intervals.