Haidomyrmodes

Phillip Barden, Hollister W. Herhold & David A. Grimaldi, 2017, A new genus of hell ants from the Cretaceous (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Haidomyrmecini) with a novel head structure, Systematic Entomology 42, pp. 837-846 : 838

• Haidomyrmodes mammuthus Perrichot, et al.

– described from both partial gyne and worker specimens, H. mammathus is the only alate specimen yet described ( Perrichot et al., 2008). In addition, the type material is the only reported conspecific worker and putative queen caste for any Cretaceous taxon and provides important information regarding sociality in early ants. The description of multiple specimens from an additional locality confirmed beyond any doubt that the highly unusual features observed in H. cerberus were not preservational. Largely similar to H. cerberus, H. mammathus possesses ocelli, which have long been presumed to be an ancestral ant trait ( Wilson et al., 1967b).

Locality: Charentese amber, ~ 100 Ma, Charentes, France ( Perrichot et al., 2010)