Zigrasimeciinae Explained

Zigrasimeciinae is a subfamily of ants, known from the Cretaceous period, originally named as the tribe Zigrasimeciini within the subfamily Sphecomyrminae by Borysenko, 2017,^[1] it was elevated to full subfamily in 2020. It contains three described genera.^[2] They are sometimes known as iron-maiden ants in reference to their densely spiked mouthparts, reminiscent of an iron maiden torture device, that were likely used to trap prey. Boltonimecia canadensis was described from Campanian Canadian amber out of Alberta, Canada, while the species of Protozigrasimecia and Zigrasimecia are both exclusively known from Cenomanian Burmese amber found in Myanmar.^[3]

Genera and species

• Boltonimecia ?
  • B. canadensis
• Protozigrasimecia
  • P. chauli
• Zigrasimecia
  • Z. boudinoti ^[4]
  • Z. caohuijiae ^[4]
  • Z. chuyangsui ^[4]
  • Z. ferox
  • Z. goldingot ^[5]
  • Z. hoelldobleri
  • Z. perrichoti ^[4]
  • Z. thate ^[4]
  • Z. tonsora

Notes and References

1. Borysenko . L.H. . 2017 . Description of a new genus of primitive ants from Canadian amber, with the study of relationships between stem- and crown-group ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) . Insecta Mundi . 570 . 1–57 .
2. Boudinot . B. . Perrichot . V. . Chaul . J. . 2020 . †Camelosphecia gen. nov., lost ant-wasp intermediates from the mid-Cretaceous (Hymenoptera, Formicoidea) . ZooKeys . 1005 . 21–55 . 10.3897/zookeys.1005.57629 . 33390754 . 7762752 . 1313-2970 . free. 2020ZooK.1005...21B .
3. Cao . H. . Boudinot . B. . Wang . Z. . Miao . X. . Shih . C. . Ren . D. . Gao . T. . 2020 . Two new iron maiden ants from Burmese amber (Hymenoptera: Formicidae:† Zigrasimeciini) . . 30 . 161–173 . 10.25849/myrmecol.news_030:161 .
4. Chaul . J. C. M. . 2023 . A revision of the Cretaceous ant genus Zigrasimecia Barden & Grimaldi, 2013 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: †Zigrasimeciinae) . Zootaxa . 5325 . 3 . 301–341 . 10.11646/zootaxa.5325.3.1 . 38220906 .
5. Zhuang . Yuhui . Ran . Hao . Li . Xiaoqin . Feng . Chen . Liu . Yu . 2022 . A new species of the iron maiden ant based on an alate female from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Zigrasimecia) . Cretaceous Research . en . 130 . 105056 . 10.1016/j.cretres.2021.105056 . 240812443.