Cyatta abscondita: Taxonomy, Evolution, and Natural History of a New Fungus-Farming Ant Genus from Brazil
Author
Jeffrey Sosa-Calvo
Author
Ted R. Schultz
Author
Carlos R. F. Brandao
Author
Christiana Klingenberg
Author
Rodrigo M. Feitosa
Author
Christian Rabeling
Author
Mauricio Bacci Jr.
Author
Caue T. Lopes
Author
Heraldo L. Vasconcelos
text
PLOS ONE
2013
8
11
1
20
journal article
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0080498
Cyatta
gen. n.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 0ED4A047-327E-482C-A6AF-E92136DB5697 Figures 1-4.
Type
species.
Cyatta abscondita
sp. n.
, by present designation.
Worker. Small, monomorphic attine ant, total length (TL)= 2.29-2.56; Weber's length (WL)= 0.58-0.65. Color pale yellow to light brown. Body densely reticulate and covered with minute simple appressed hairs, more abundant on dorsum of head, waist segments, and gaster than on mesosoma. Palp formula 4,2. Anterior margin of clypeus produced into a convex, almost triangular, smooth, shining flange, i.e., "clypeal apron," with long unpaired median seta that originates closer to its posterior margin. Psammophore absent. Masticatory margin of mandibles 4-toothed. Antennal scrobes and preocular carinae absent. Antennae 11-segmented. Frontal lobes reduced, barely covering antennal insertions and diverging anteriorly. Frontal area subtriangular, distinct. In full-face view, posterior cephalic margin inflated laterally and strongly notched medially. Tubercles on mesosomal dorsum short, attenuate, and blunt. Metapleura with two spiniform processes between mid and hind coxae. Propodeum armed with a pair of short triangular spines. Node of petiole high, well-developed. Gaster lacking
carinae
or tubercles. In lateral view, pygidium rounded, laterally overlapping and concealing the hypopygium; in ventral view, pygidium posteromedially emarginate (i.e., V-shaped), the triangular hypopygium fitting within the emargination of the pygidium.
Gyne. Preocular carina absent. Mandible 4-toothed, apical tooth nearly twice as long as preapical tooth. Parapsidal lines inconspicuous.
Male. Mandibles broadly triangular with apical and subapical teeth present. Anterior margin of clypeus (clypeal apron) convex, projecting over mandibles, and with a long median seta. Discal cell present in forewing.
Etymology.
Cyatta
is a neologism constructed in part from the Brazilian Tupi language word Cy, meaning "sister," referring to its status, along with the
genus Kalathomyrmex
, as the sister clade to the remaining genera of the informal clade
Neoattini
, to which the genus
Atta
, the most conspicuous member of the
Neoattini
, belongs.