Anochetus corayi

Anochetus corayi Temporal range: Burdigalian? PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Anochetus corayi holotype
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Genus:	Anochetus
Species:	†A. corayi
Binomial name
Anochetus corayi Baroni Urbani, 1980

Anochetus corayi is an extinct species of ant in the subfamily Ponerinae known from one possibly Miocene fossil found on Hispaniola. A. corayi is one of eight species in the ant genus Anochetus to have been described from fossils found in Dominican amber and is one of a number of Anochetus species found in the Greater Antillies.

Anochetus corayi is known from a solitary fossil insect which is an inclusion in a transparent yellow chunk of Dominican amber. The amber was produced by the extinct Hymenaea protera, which formerly grew on Hispaniola, across northern South America and up to southern Mexico. The specimen was collected from an unspecified amber mine in fossil bearing rocks of the Cordillera Septentrional mountains of northern Dominican Republic. Associated fossil foraminifera date the amber from at least the Burdigalian stage of the Miocene, the associated fossil coccoliths may be as old as the Middle Eocene. This age range is due to the host rock being secondary deposits for the amber, and the Miocene the age range is only the youngest that it might be.

At the time of description, the holotype specimen was preserved in the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart amber collections in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The holotype fossil was first studied by entomologist Cesare Baroni Urbani of the University of Basle with his 1980 type description of the new species being published in the journal Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde. Serie B (Geologie und Paläontologie). The specific epithet corayi is a patronym honoring Mr Armin Coray in recognition of the illustration work he provided for the type description and a number of other amber fossils.