Tatuidris tatusia
| Tatuidris | |
|---|---|
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| T. tatusia worker, specimen from El Campano, Magdalena, Colombia | |
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Not evaluated (IUCN 3.1)
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Formicidae |
| Subfamily: | Agroecomyrmecinae |
| Tribe: | Agroecomyrmecini |
| Genus: |
Tatuidris Brown & Kempf, 1968 |
| Species: | T. tatusia |
| Binomial name | |
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Tatuidris tatusia Brown & Kempf, 1968 |
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| Synonyms | |
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T. kapasi Lacau & Groc, 2012 |
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T. kapasi Lacau & Groc, 2012
Tatuidris, or armadillo ant, is a rare genus of ants consisting of a single species, Tatuidris tatusia. The ants are small in size and inhabit the leaf litter of Neotropical forests in Central and South America, from Mexico to Brazil. Workers are ferruginous-colored to dark red and present a distinctive morphology, consisting of a shield-like head with a broad vertex, ventrally-turned heavy mandibles which do not overlap at full closure, and unique among ants – an antenna socket apparatus sitting upside-down. Little is known about the biology of the ants, but they are likely nocturnal and specialist predators.
Tatuidris was first described in 1968 and initially placed in the myrmicine tribe Agroecomyrmecini, together with two fossil genera. Since the original description, the systematic status of the tribe has been the focus of debate.
Tatuidris tatusia is the only species in Tatuidris, a monotypic genus and one of only two extant genera in the subfamily Agroecomyrmecinae. A new species, T. kapasi, was described by Lacau & Groc in 2012, but has now been relegated to a junior synonym under T. tatusia based on the extent of the morphological variability encountered throughout this broad geographic range. Analysis of DNA barcodes indicated a pattern of genetic isolation by distance, suggesting the presence of a single species undergoing allopatric differentiation.
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