Macabeemyrma is an extinct genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of bulldog ants in the subfamily Myrmeciinae

Myrmeciinae

The Myrmeciinae is a subfamily of the Formicidae that was once found worldwide but is now restricted to Australia and New Caledonia. This subfamily is one of several ant subfamilies which possess gamergates, female worker ants which are able to mate and reproduce, thus sustaining the colony after...

 and containing the single species Macabeemyrma ovata. The species is known from Early Eocene, Ypresian stage

Ypresian

In the geologic timescale the Ypresian is the oldest age or lowest stratigraphic stage of the Eocene. It spans the time between and , is preceded by the Thanetian age and is followed by the Eocene Lutetian age....

, lake deposits near the small community of Cache Creek, British Columbia

Cache Creek, British Columbia

Cache Creek is a junction community northeast of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada. It is on the Trans-Canada Highway in the province of British Columbia at its junction with northbound Highway 97...

 Canada.

History and classification

Macabeemyrma ovata is known only from one fossil, the part and counterpart holotype

Holotype

A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described. It is either the single such physical example or one of several such, but explicitly designated as the holotype...

, number "UCCIPR L-18 F-844" for part side and "UCCIPR L-18 F-856" for the counterpart side. It is a single, mostly complete adult

Adult

An adult is a human being or living organism that is of relatively mature age, typically associated with sexual maturity and the attainment of reproductive age....

 queen

Queen ant

A queen ant is an adult, reproducing female ant in an ant colony; generally she will be the mother of all the other ants in that colony. Some female ants do not need to mate to produce offspring, reproducing through asexual parthenogenesis or cloning and all of those offspring will be female.Ant...

, preserved as a compression fossil in fine grained shale

Shale

Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering...

. The shale

Shale

Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering...

 specimen is from fossiliferous outcrops at the McAbee locality, part of an unnamed formation in the Kamloops group which outcrops east of Cache Creek. Both sides of the specimen are currently preserved in the paleoentomological collections housed in the Thompson Rivers University

Thompson Rivers University

Thompson Rivers University is a comprehensive university located in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada. It offers students a broad range of courses, career streams, and the ability to ladder credits from diploma programs into full degrees...

 located in Kamloops, British Columbia

Kamloops, British Columbia

Kamloops is a city in south central British Columbia, at the confluence of the two branches of the Thompson River and near Kamloops Lake. It is the largest community in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District and the location of the regional district's offices. The surrounding region is more commonly...

, Canada. M. ovata was first studied by Bruce Archibald, Stefan Cover and Corrie Moreau of the Museum of Comparative Zoology

Museum of Comparative Zoology

The Museum of Comparative Zoology, full name "The Louis Agassiz Museum of Comparative Zoology", often abbreviated simply to "MCZ", is a zoology museum located on the grounds of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is one of three museums which collectively comprise the Harvard Museum...

 in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...

, with their 2006 type description of the genus and species in an Annals of the Entomological Society of America journal article. Archibald, Cover, and Moreau created the generic name

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 Macabeemyrma as a toponym of the type locality at McAbee combined with the Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 , meaning "ant". In accordance with the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature

International Code of Zoological Nomenclature

The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature is a widely accepted convention in zoology that rules the formal scientific naming of organisms treated as animals...

 recommendations the locality name was spelled Macabee. The specific epithet ovata was coined from the Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 "ovatus" meaning "egg shaped", in reference to the shape of the species' head capsule.

Description

Macabeemyrma ovata is about 25 millimetre (0.984251968503937 in) long with a distinct elongated oval head capsule. The holotype is missing the wings and some portions of the legs, while the eyes are very faintly preserved. The shape of the mandibles is generally elongate and not subtriangular which is normal for other members of Myrmeciinae except the genus Myrmecia

Myrmecia

Myrmecia, often called bulldog ants, bull ants, inch ants, sergeant ants, jumper ants or jack-jumpers , is a genus of ants. Bull ants can grow to over in length, with the smallest species long...

.

External links

• Genus: Macabeemyrma at antweb.org
• Bulldog ants of the Eocene Okanagan Highlands and history of the subfamily (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Myrmeciinae) (full text at archive.org)