Carebara antiqua

Introduction

Carebara antiqua is an extinct ant species from the Late Eocene period, approximately 33.9-37.8 million years ago. It was originally described from Baltic amber by Mayr in 1868 based on two queen specimens, making it one of the earliest formally described ant species from amber fossils . Workers of this species were tiny, with vestigial eyes containing only a few facets . The species has undergone several reclassifications, moving through Pheidologeton, Aeromyrma, Erebomyrma, Oligomyrmex, and finally Carebara . This species represents an important window into Eocene ant diversity and is one of the more common ant inclusions in Baltic amber collections, exceeding 1% of inclusions in some representative samples .