Cretaceous crown male ant reveals the rise of modern lineages.

Most described Mesozoic ants belong to stem groups that existed only during the Cretaceous period. Previously, the earliest known crown ants were dated to the Turonian (Late Cretaceous, ca. 94-90 million years ago (Ma)) deposits found in the USA, Kazakhstan, and Botswana. However, the recent discovery of an alate male ant in Kachin amber from the earliest Cenomanian (ca. 99 Ma), representing a new genus and species, Antiquiformica alata, revises the narrative on ant diversification. Antiquiformica can be distinctly differentiated from all known male stem ants by its geniculate antennae with elongated scape, extending far beyond the occipital margin of the head and half the length of the funiculus, as well as its partly reduced forewing venation. Furthermore, the combination of a one-segmented waist with a well-developed node, elongated scape extending beyond the occipital margin, and reduced forewing venation, particularly the completely reduced m-cu and rs-m crossveins and absence of rm and mcu closed cells, firmly places the fossil within the extant subfamily Formicinae. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) confirmed that the amber containing Antiquiformica alata originated from the Kachin mines in Myanmar. This discovery significantly revises our understanding of the early evolution of Formicinae. The presence of Antiquiformica in Cenomanian amber indicates that the subfamily Formicinae emerged at least by the start of the Late Cretaceous, with crown ants likely originating earlier during the earliest Cretaceous or possibly the Late Jurassic, although paleontological evidence is lacking to support the latter hypothesis.

Ant type specimens (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in the collection of Volodymyr Opanasovych Karawajew. Communication 1. Dorylinae, Poneromorpha and Pseudomyrmecinae.

The collection of Volodymyr Opanasovych Karawajew, stored at the Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (SIZK, Kiev), is one of the richest ant collections of the world. It contains more than 20,000 dry mounted specimens, collected mostly in Southeast Asia and the Palaearctic, as well as in the Afrotropics, Australia, and North and South America. Among them, we found type specimens of 509 taxa, described by Karawajew and other myrmecologists. The compiled Catalogue includes data on types of 80 taxa belonging to the subfamilies Dorylinae, Amblyoponinae, Ectatomminae, Ponerinae, Proceratiinae and Pseudomyrmecinae.

Ant genus Strongylognathus (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in Bulgaria: a preliminary review.

BACKGROUND: Strongylognathus Mayr, 1853 is a Palaearctic genus, comprising 25 ant species and one subspecies, all permanent social parasites, infesting colonies of various species of Tetramorium Mayr, 1855. They have patchy distribution throughout their areas and most of them are very rare and listed as vulnerable.The taxonomy of the Strongylognathus huberi group needs thorough revision and the results presented below can be considered as preliminary. NEW INFORMATION: Four species of the socially parasitic ant genus Strongylognathus (S. karawajewi Pisarski, 1966, S. huberi dalmaticus Baroni Urbani, 1969, S. afer Emery, 1884 and S. italicus Finzi, 1924) are recorded for the first time from Bulgaria and, together with the previously-known S. testaceus and S. bulgaricus stat. rev., their total number reaches six. The taxonomic position and geographic distribution of all species are discussed and a Key for their identification, based on worker caste, is compiled.

Karawajew's ant type specimens (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in the National Museum of Natural History of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

The collection of W.A. Karawajew is one of the richest and most famous ant collections of the World. Much of this collection consists of dry mounted specimens, including types of about 550 taxa, housed in the Shmalhausen Institute of Zoology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kiev). Nevertheless, we located a considerable part of Karawajew's collection, containing about 25,000 specimens in alcohol, that is preserved in the National Museum of Natural History of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kiev). The latter material was recently examined and we found types of 24 taxa. This type material was partly mounted, re-ordered and catalogued. In this paper we present a catalogue of these type specimens housed in the National Museum of Natural History.

Catalogue of the ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) of Bulgaria.

The present catalogue of the ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) of Bulgaria is made on a base of critical reconsideration of literature (covering the period from 1892 till 2009 and part of 2010) as well as on examination of the authors' and several museum's collections. A lot of data were omitted in the previous Bulgarian monograph on ants, lots of new data were recently added and many important additions and alterations were made due to taxonomic revisions of Eurasian Formicidae during the last three decades. Two new species are reported for the country [Temnothorax graecus (Forel, 1911) and Temnothorax cf. korbi (Emery, 1924)].This catalogue contains a list of 163 ant species belonging to 40 genera of 6 subfamilies now known from Bulgaria. Synonyms and information on the previously reported names in relevant publications are given. Known localities of the species are grouped by geographic regions. Maps with concrete localities or regions for each species were prepared. The conservation status of 13 ant species is given as they are included in IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and Bulgarian Biodiversity Act. In comparison with adjacent Balkan regions the ant fauna of Bulgaria is quite rich and its core is composed of South European elements.