Haidomyrmecinae

Haidomyrmecinae Temporal range: Late Albian - Campanian 100–79 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	†Haidomyrmecinae Bolton, 2003
Type genus
†Haidomyrmex
Genera
See text
Synonyms
Haidomyrmecini

Haidomyrmecinae, occasionally called Hell ants, are an extinct subfamily of ants (Formicidae) known from Cretaceous fossils found in ambers of North America, Europe, and Asia, spanning the late Albian to Campanian, around 100 to 79 million years ago. The subfamily was first proposed in 2003, but had been subsequently treated as the tribe Haidomyrmecini and placed in the extinct ant subfamily Sphecomyrminae. Reevaluation of Haidomyrmecini in 2020 lead to the elevation of the group back to subfamily. The family contains the nine genera and thirteen species. Members of this family are distinguished by their diverse head ornamentation, and unusually shaped, extended mandibles, highly distinct from all other known groups of ants. They have been found to lie outside the crown group of modern ants.^[1]

Genera[]

Haidomyrmex zigrasi

Including the type genus Haidomyrmex, the subfamily contains ten genera and fourteen species.

The vast majority of species are known from Burmese amber, which dates to the mid-Cretaceous, around 100 million years ago. Other species are known from French amber of equivalent age, as well as the Canadian amber of Alberta, Canada, which dates to around 80 million years ago.

References[]

External links[]

• The Reign of the Hell Ants PBS Eons, Jan 21, 2021

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