THE FOSSIL MEMBERS OF THE ANT TRIBE LEPTOMYRMECINI (HYMENOPTERA: FORMICIDAE)

Additional specimens have confirmed the existence of the ant tribe Leptomyrmecini in Miocene amber of the Dominican Republic. The workers of the species, Leptomyrmex neotropicus , are not distinguishable at the generic level from the living Leptomyrmex of Australia and Melanesia, but the male tentatively associated with the workers has peculiarities in wing venation that may eventually justify a separation from Leptomyrmex as well as from Leptomyrmula of the Miocene Sicilian amber. This is the only higher ant taxon other than the subfamily Aneuretinae known to have gone extinct in the New World while surviving in the Old World.