ANTS FROM THE CRETACEOUS AND EOCENE AMBER 
OF NORTH AMERICA* 
By Edward O. Wilson 
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University 
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, U.S.A. 
The discovery of Sphecomyrma freyi in amber from New Jersey 
disclosed the existence of an extinct subfamily of ants (Spheco- 
myrminae) intermediate in some traits between modern ants and 
nonsocial wasps and dating as far back as the lower part of the 
Upper Cretaceous (Wilson et al., 1967a, b). Subsequently Dlussky 
(1975, 1983) described a series of new genera from the Upper Cre- 
taceous of the Taymyr Peninsula (extreme north-central Siberia), 
southern Kazakh S.S.R., and the Magadan region of extreme east- 
ern Siberia. Among the various specimens assigned to these taxa 
(the genera are Archaeopone, Armania, Armaniella, Cretomyrma, 
Cretopone, Dolichomyrma, Paleomyrmex, Petropone, Poneropte- 
rus, and Pseudar mania), the ones well enough preserved to disclose 
subfamily-level diagnostic characters appear to fall within the 
Sphecomyrminae. Indeed it is difficult to find sound reasons for 
separating most of them from Sphecomyrma, providing we limit 
ourselves to the same criteria applied to contemporary genera and 
tribes. There seems to be little justification for placing them in a 
separate family, the Armaniidae, as suggested by Dlussky. 
If this interpretation of the Russian material is correct, we have 
established that the most primitive known group of ants, the Sphe- 
comyrminae, lived over much of the northern hemisphere during 
middle and late Cretaceous times. Other discoveries have revealed 
that by Eocene times, some 50 million years later, higher forms of 
ants had come into existence, but the evidence remains very scanty 
and ambiguous. Eomyrmex guchengziensis, described from amber 
in the Eocene coal beds of Fushun, Manchuria, appears from the 
description and illustrations to be a relatively primitive ponerine 
with traits reminiscent of the Sphecomyrminae (Hong et al., 1974). 
Because of its possibly intermediate status, a further study of the 
single worker would be a valuable exercise. The giant Eoponera 
* Manuscript received by the editor March 16, 1985. 
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