Aenictus
Old World army ants: Aenictinae, Aenictini
- Aenictus abeillei
- 109 additional described species
Characteristics
Aenictus is characterized by the following derived traits (Bolton 2003):- Spiracle of abdominal segment III (postpetiole) at or behind midlength of tergite
- Abdominal segment IV (first gastral) constricted behind the presclerites, forming a neck
- Pygidium very small, reduced to a narrow U-shaped sclerite
- Postpygidial gland large
- Male without presclerites on abdominal segment IV
- Male with abdominal segment VI enlarged
- Male tergite VII mostly overlapped and concealed by tergite VI so that only a small portion of VII is visible, internalized portion of tergite VII desclerotized
References
Bolton, B. 1990b. Army ants reassessed: the phylogeny and classification of the doryline section. Journal of Natural History 24: 1339-1364.
Bolton, B. 1994. Identification Guide to the Ant Genera of the World. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bolton, B. 1995. A New General Catalogue of the Ants of the World. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bolton, B. 2003. Synopsis and Classification of Formicidae. 370 pp. Memoirs of the American Entomological Institute, Vol. 71. Gainesville, FL.
Brady, S. 2003. Evolution of the army ant syndrome: the origin and long-term evolutionary stasis of a complex of behavioral and reproductive adaptations. PNAS 100(11): 6575-6579.
Gotwald, W. H., Jr. 1979. Phylogenetic implications of army ant zoogeography (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Annals of the Entomological Society of America. 72 (4): 462-467.
Gotwald, W. H., Jr and A. W. Burdette. 1981. Morphology of the male internal reproductive system in army ants: phylogenetic implications. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 83: 72-92.
Hölldobler, B. and E. O. Wilson. 1990. The Ants. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Perfil'eva, K. S. 2002. Wing venation in army ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) and its importance for phylogeny. Zoologicheskii Zhurnal 81 (10): 1239-1250.
Wheeler, G. C. & Wheeler, J. 1976. Ant larvae: review and synthesis. Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Washington 74: 1-108.
About This Page
Page copyright © 2004
All Rights Reserved.
- First online 06 September 2004
Citing this page:
Tree of Life Web Project. 2004. Aenictus. Old World army ants: Aenictinae, Aenictini. Version 06 September 2004 (temporary). http://tolweb.org/Aenictus/22209/2004.09.06 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/
