Chung, F.-Y., Hsu, P.-W., Hsu, F.-C. & Lin, C.-C.

A new genus in a hyperdiverse ant lineage (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Myrmicinae) revealed by integration of morphological and molecular evidence

Myrmicinae Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau, 1835, the largest subfamily within the Formicidae family, harbors a significant amount of undiscovered biodiversity. In this study, we describe a new genus, Unicumyrmex gen.n., represented by Unicumyrmex fushanensis gen.n. et sp.n., from the tribe Solenopsidini Forel, 1893, in Taiwan. The classification at the genus level was corroborated by various forms of evidence, including the morphology of workers and males, as well as molecular data. Morphological comparisons between U. fushanensis gen.n. et sp.n. and both morphologically similar and phylogenetically related species were conducted using detailed photography, including scanning electron microscopy. Keys to Solenopsidini workers with 11 antennal segments, as well as known Solenopsidini males from 14 genera, were provided along with discussions. For the phylogenetic reconstruction, 10 nuclear gene segments from U. fushanensis gen.n. et sp.n. were extracted from the assemblies of shotgun sequencing. The result revealed that the species clusters with morphologically distinct genera distributed in the same bioregion. In addition, pairwise genetic distances in the barcoding region of the cytochrome c oxidase I gene for U. fushanensis gen.n. et sp.n. and other myrmicine ants were calculated to further support its genus-level classification.

Open access, licensed under CC BY 4.0. © 2025 The Author(s).

Solenopsidini, scanning electron microscopy, SEM, shotgun sequencing, Taiwan.