Phylogenomics resolves the systematics and biogeography of the ant genus Manica (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) and tribal relationships of the Myrmicinae
We test the placement of the fossil Manica andrannae proposed by Zharkov et al. (2022) by integrating phylogenomic and morphological data from all species within Manica and a broad sampling of its sister genus Myrmica. While M. andrannae bears the diagnostic characters that unite extant Manica species, the well developed propodeal tubercles, narrow head capsule, and short propodeum observed in M. andrannae are divergent from all extant Manica, and closer to the conditions observed in extant Myrmica, the sister genus of Manica. Furthermore, we test the topology of the myrmicine tribes using genome scale data, demonstrate the effect of alternate fossil placement on overall divergence times in the Myrmicinae, and re-evaluate the historical biogeography of the Myrmicini.