Casaleia
Extinct ant genus from Eocene to Miocene European fossils.
Casaleia is an extinct genus of ants in the subfamily Amblyoponinae, known from fossils found in Europe. The genus contains four species that lived from the Eocene to the Miocene.
Quick Facts
- Type species
- Protamblyopone inversa
Facts from the source article.
History and classification
The species placed in Casaleia have a varied taxonomic history. The type species, Casaleia inversa, was originally described by Gennady Dlussky in 1981 as "Protamblyopone" inversa, based on a fossil from Middle Miocene sediments of the Chon-Tyz mine in the Naryn Region, Kyrgyzstan. Because the name "Protamblyopone" had already been used by William Morton Wheeler as a subgenus of Amblyopone, the species was moved to the new genus Casaleia by Pagliano and Scaramozzino in a 1990 paper to correct the homonym status. The second species, Casaleia eocenica, is of Lutetian age and was recovered as a solitary compression-impression fossil from the Messel pit World Heritage Site in Germany. That fossil was described by Dlussky and Sonja Wedmann in a 2012 paper on poneromorph ants of Messel; its specific epithet derives from the Eocene age. Casaleia longiventris was originally described 132 years before C. inversa and the erection of the new genus. The species was based on seven separate compression fossils from the Radoboj area of what is now Croatia, preserved in micrite limestones from an Early Miocene inland sea basin. These fossils were first studied by Oswald Heer, who placed them in the genus Formica as F. longiventris in 1849. That placement remained unchanged until a 2014 re-examination by Dlussky and Putyatina of two of Heer's syntypes resulted in the species being moved to Casaleia; one of those specimens was designated lectotype, while the second was determined not to belong to the genus.
Description
All three species of Casaleia share a broad abdomen that sits against the thorax, connected by a single petiole node. When eyes are present, they are located just behind the midpoint of the head capsule. Known gynes have twelve-segmented, geniculate antennae and triangular mandibles. The type fossil of C. eocenica is a winged gyne preserved as a dorsal imprint, measuring 4.9 mm in body length with fore-wings 3.2 mm long. Its eyes sit near the head’s midpoint, and its scape reaches past the back corner of the head. C. inversa is medium-sized for the genus at 6.5 mm. The largest species, C. longiventris, reaches 10 mm in body length with a hind-wing length of 6.4 mm. Its mesosoma is longer than those of the other two species. The single examined lectotype of C. longiventris lacks preserved antennae and fore-wings.
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