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| Polyrhachis dives | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Formicidae |
| Subfamily: | Formicinae |
| Genus: | Polyrhachis |
| Species: | P. dives |
| Binomial name | |
| Polyrhachis dives Smith, 1857 | |
Polyrhachis dives is a wide-ranging species of ant from southern Asia and the Northern Territory of Australia.
Throughout its wide distribution, P. dives is a morphologically stable species with only a few, insignificant differences between individuals, even those from far away locations. However, Southeast Asian specimens generally have a more deeply notched anterior clypeal margin and eyes that only rarely exceed the lateral cephalic outline. Most also have the tips of the propodeal spines more distinctly curved outwards, and longer petiolar spines that are somewhat curved downwards from their midlength. In contrast, the anterior clypeal margin in Australian and New Guinean specimens is only shallowly emarginated and the eyes exceed the lateral cephalic outline. The propodeal spines are only weakly curved outwards and the petiolar spines are slightly shorter and less curved.
In Australia, P. dives are known from two isolated populations, one in the Northern Territory and the other in northern Queensland. It prefers mostly open savannah woodlands and swampy coastal plains, where it builds its silk and/or carton-based, relatively large, and usually has many nests between the branches and leaves of shrubs.
In Japan, as it is smaller than Polyrhachis lamellidens , P. dives is also more timid. It nests in the trees, using larval silk to stitch leaves together. Nests are highly polygynous. It is common in rural and agricultural areas of Okinawa and is well known to those who encounter it because of its strong and painful bite. In the past, it was rare in northern parts of the island and has recently extended its range northward or has become much more common. The reason for this expansion or increase in population size is unknown.
Paradoxides is a genus of large to very large trilobite found throughout the world during the Middle Cambrian period. One record-breaking specimen of Paradoxides davidis, described by John William Salter in 1863, is 37 cm (15 in). The cephalon was semicircular with free cheeks ending in long, narrow, recurved spines. Eyes were crescent shaped providing an almost 360° view, but only in the horizontal plane. Its elongate thorax was composed of 19–21 segments and adorned with longish, recurved pleural spines. Its pygidium was comparatively small. Paradoxides is a characteristic Middle-Cambrian trilobite of the 'Atlantic' (Avalonian) fauna. Avalonian rocks were deposited near a small continent called Avalonia in the Paleozoic Iapetus Ocean. Avalonian beds are now in a narrow strip along the East Coast of North America, and in Europe.
Metapleural glands are secretory glands that were considered unique to ants and basal in the evolutionary history of ants. They are responsible for the production of an antibiotic fluid that then collects in a reservoir on the posterior of the ant's alitrunk. These reservoirs are also referred to as the bulla and vary in size between ant species and also between castes of the same species. As of 2023, research has found a metapleural gland convergently evolved in the wasp species Pelecinus polyturator.
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Polyrhachis is a genus of formicine ants found in the Old World with over 600 species. The genus is yet to be comprehensively resolved and contains many varied species including nest-weavers, swimming workers, soil and tree-dwellers. First fossil record of this genus was P. annosa from Miocene.
Apterostigma is a genus of New World ants of the subfamily Myrmicinae. Two species have been described from fossils preserved in Dominican amber, while the others are extant. They are fungus-growing ants, though, unlike the majority of other species in Attini who grow Lepiotaceae, some species have begun cultivating Tricholomataceae.
Eopeachella is an extinct genus of trilobites, fossil marine arthropods, with species of probably small size, entire, articulate specimens have not yet been found. It lived during the Toyonian stage, in what is today the South-Western United States. Eopeachella angustispina is the only known species in this genus.
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Conocoryphe is a genus of primarily eyeless trilobites belonging to the family Conocoryphidae. They lived during the Middle Cambrian period, about 505 million years ago. These arthropods lived on the sea bottom (epifaunal) and lived off dead particulate organic matter.
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Kempfidris is a Neotropical genus of ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae containing the single species Kempfidris inusualis. Known from Brazil, Ecuador and Venezuela, the species was originally described as Monomorium inusuale in 2007, but was reclassified as the type species for the new genus Kempfidris in 2014. The species is only known from workers and almost nothing is known about their natural history.
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Philometra priacanthi is a species of parasitic nematode of fishes. Its name is derived from its host species, Priacanthus hamrur. It possesses dorsal lamella-like structures on the distal part of its gubernaculum, which can also be found on other of its cogenerates. The only species with a dorsal protuberance near the gubernaculum's end is P. priacanthi, however. P. lateolabracis can be distinguished from the former by the lateral caudal mounds separated dorsally, narrower lamella-like structures on its gubernaculum, shorter spicules, and by the testis extending anteriorly. Other gonad-infecting species differ from this one by possessing a smooth gubernaculum, and their spicules being of different lengths. Seven gonad-infecting species of Philometra can be distinguished from P. priacanthi by their host types, as well as by geographical distribution.
Lasioglossum leucozonium, also known as Lasioglossum similis, is a widespread solitary sweat bee found in North America, Europe, Asia, and parts of northern Africa. While now a common bee in North America, population genetic analysis has shown that it is actually an introduced species in this region. This population was most likely founded by a single female bee.
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