Adetomyrma venatrix

Adetomyrma venatrix
File:Adetomyrma venatrix casent0172771 profile 1.jpg
A blind worker
File:Adetomyrma venatrix casent0490924 dorsal 1.jpg
A winged queen
Conservation status
Critically Endangered (IUCN 2.3)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Amblyoponinae
Tribe:	Amblyoponini
Genus:	Adetomyrma
Species:	A. venatrix
Binomial name
Adetomyrma venatrix Ward, 1994

Adetomyrma venatrix is an endangered species of ants endemic to Madagascar. Workers of this species are blind. The species was described as the type species of Adetomyrma in 1994, with the genus being an atypical member of its tribe.

Description

File:Adetomyrma venatrix casent0172771 head 1.jpg

Head of a blind worker

Adetomyrma venatrix was described on the basis of specimens belonging to the worker caste collected from Zombitse Forest, in western Madagascar. The key characteristics of the species was the absence of a clear petiole when viewed from above due to the third abdominal tergite (the sclerite on the dorsal side) lacking a differentiated pretergite. The gaster is large and without constrictions. The ant is blind and has a long sting. It was placed with reservations in the tribe Amblyoponini as it lacks the typical characters of the group. Later studies considered them as being close to the ancestral members of the Amblyoponinae and they share certain morphological features with Amblyopone pluto such as the presence of laterosclerite.

External links

• Media related to at Wikimedia Commons
• Adetomyrma venatrix media at ARKive

• Social Insects Specialist Group (1996). Adetomyrma venatrix. In: IUCN 2008. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Retrieved 10 May 2009.