Sphecomyrminae

Sphecomyrminae Temporal range: Turonian–Campanian PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Zigrasimecia tonsora holotype
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	†Sphecomyrminae Wilson & Brown, 1967
Type genus
†Sphecomyrma
Tribes and genera
See text

Sphecomyrminae is an extinct subfamily of ants in family Formicidae known from a series of Cretaceous fossils found in North America, Europe, and Asia. Sphecomyrminae contains nine genera, divided into two tribes, Haidomyrmecini and Sphecomyrmini. The tribe Haidomyrmecini contains the four genera Ceratomyrmex, Haidomyrmex, Haidomyrmodes and Haidoterminus, while Sphecomyrmini contains Baikuris, Cretomyrma, Dlusskyidris, Sphecomyrma, and Zigrasimecia. The genus Sphecomyrmodes was formerly placed into Sphecomyrmini; however, in 2016, it was made a synonym of the stem group genus Gerontoformica, which is considered incertae sedis in Formicidae.

Sphecomyrminae is the most basal of the Formicidae subfamilies, but has not been included in several recent phylogenetic studies of the family.Symplesiomorphies of the subfamily include the structure of the antenna, which has a short basal segment and a flexible group of segments below the antenna tip. The petiole is low and rounded, with an unrestricted gaster and the presence of a metapleural gland. The subfamily is characterized by three major synapomorphies, the short pedicel, a second flagellar segment that is double the length of the other antenna segments, and the loss of the apical end of the CuA veins in the wings of adult males.

The single Haidomyrmodes species, Haidomyrmodes mammathus, is known from fossil insects that are inclusions in transparent chunks of French amber. The genus was first described by paleoentomologists Vincent Perrichot and André Nel in 2008. The sister genus, Haidomyrmex, is more diverse with three described species, Haidomyrmex cerberus, Haidomyrmex scimitarus and Haidomyrmex zigrasi, all described from fossils in Burmese amber. While the type specimen of Haidomyrmex cerberus was collected in the early 1900s and deposited in the Natural History Museum in London, a description of the specimen did not occur until 1996 with a paper by the Russian paleoentomologist Gennady M. Dlussky. Both H. scimitarus and H. zigrasi were described in the same 2012 paper by Phillip Barden and David Grimaldi. The third genus, Haidoterminus, and its single species, Haidoterminus cippus, were described in 2013 from Canadian amber. This extended the age range for the tribe by an additional 20 million years into the Late Cretaceous and expanded the geographic range into North America.