Aneuretinae Emery, 1913

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 : 6-7

Subfamily Aneuretinae Emery, 1913 .

Type genus. Aneuretus Emery, 1893 .

Diagnosis (all adult castes). All adults of Aneuretinae possess the following diagnostic plesiomorphies (1–6): (1) mandibles shovel-shaped (=“triangular”) [plesiomorphy of Poneroformicia, or at least Doryloformicia]; (2) meso- and metatibiae with one spur each [synapomorphy of clade Dolichoderomorpha]; (3) petiole with complete tergosternal fusion [synapomorphy of clade Dolichoderomorpha]; (4) petiole with an elongate anterior peduncle [possible synapomorphy of clade Myrmechoderines]; (5) helcium infraaxial [possible synapomorphy of clade Myrmechoderines]; and (6) abdominal segment IV unconstricted [synapomorphy of clade Dolichoderomorpha]. Males and queens of Aneuretinae share the following diagnostic traits (7–12): (7) near-complete fore wing venation, with only the subdiscal cell open; (8) crossvein 2rs-m furcal to post-furcal, i.e., 2r-sm meeting Rs at or distad 2r-rs; (9) well-prefurcal fore wing crossvein cu-a, i.e., cu-a meeting M+Cu proximad the split of M+Cu by more than one of its own lengths; (10) absence of free M in the hind wing after the juncture of rs-m and Mf1, i.e., the abscissa between Sc+R+Rs and M+Cu linear, without a kink; (11) hind wing anal cell short, its length less than half that of the basal cell; and (12) absence of the hind wing jugal lobe. Males of Aneuretinae have the following diagnostic plesiomorphy (13): (13) genital gonocoxa and gonostylus not strongly differentiated in size, with the dorsal gonocoxal margin continuing more-or-less evenly to that of the gonostylus. Workers and queens of Aneuretinae share the following diagnostic plesiomorphies (14, 15): (14) mandible with biseriate dentition, i.e., with small teeth interspersed between large teeth [synapomorphy of Dolichoderomorpha]; (15) basal and masticatory margins of mandible not marked, i.e., these margins curving into one another, without a distinct angle [synapomorphy of Dolichoderomorpha].

Remarks. The operational paleontological definition of Aneuretinae has relied on character states 2, 4, 6, 7 (regardless of subdiscal cell state), and 12. With the explicit recognition of character state 3—which was previously indicated for the “formicomorph subfamilies” by Bolton [ 11] (p. 16)—it is possible to reject the placement of † Desyopone hereon gen. et sp. nov. from the Aneuretinae . The condition of helcial axiality is here reinterpreted from Bolton [ 11] (p. 18), who described the helcium of Aneuretinae as “high on [the] anterior face of abdominal segment III”, which is interpretable as supraaxial sensu Keller [ 46]. Although the helcial tergite of worker Aneuretus is dorsoventrally short, it can be seen that the helcium is at the ventralmost position of the sternum, which does not broaden. An axial helcium is confirmed for the Baltic amber taxa † Paraneuretus and † Protaneuretus as well. Wing venation was observable for Aneuretus and † Paraneuretus . Finally, we recognize the mandibular character states 14 and 15 as critical for the identification of Aneuretinae . The states of the mandibles have not been previously remarked upon, but along with the conformation of the clypeus (not defined here), they form the gestalt of the Aneuretinae and Dolichoderinae , which was likely used by Wheeler [ 7] to place † Paraneuretus and † Protaneuretus , although his justifications were not made explicit. Further refinement of the aneuretine diagnosis via comparative phenomics and traditional comparative morphology is highly desirable.