Martialis heureka

Martialis heureka

Martialis heureka (from Latin Martialis " from Mars " and Greek εύρηκα " I found it ") is a species of ant that was described in 2008 by Christian Rabe Ling and Manfred Verhaagh from the Natural History Museum in Karlsruhe. The species is only known by three workers who were found on two occasions in soil samples of the Brazilian rainforest. The scientific name refers to the unusual appearance and the complicated history of discovery of nature.

Martialis heureka is characterized by a number of unusual features: the about three millimeters long workers are pale and eyeless, suggesting a dark habitat. The front pair of legs is unusually long and bristle- free, the mandibles are formed very long and tweezer -like. Queens, males and larval stages are still unknown.

Because of these properties and supporting DNA analyzes the way its own subfamily of ants is attributed to the Marti Alinae. The describer suggest that the nature of an original line of development grave forming hunters consulted and has survived in the ecologically stable environment of the tropical rain forest soil.

Swell

• C. Rabe Ling, JM Brown, M. Verhaagh: Newly Discovered sister lineage sheds light on early ant evolution. In: PNAS. 2008 doi:. 10.1073/pnas.0806187105.