Carebara sophiae

Introduction

Carebara sophiae is an extinct ant species known only from a single male specimen preserved in Sicilian amber from the early Oligocene period, approximately 27.8-34.9 million years ago . This is a fossil species - it went extinct millions of years ago and no living colonies exist. The species was originally described as Aeromyrma sophiae by Emery in 1891 based on this single fossil male, and has since been reclassified through several genera before being placed in Carebara in 2004 [AntWiki]. It is the most peculiar among the amber Carebara species, with distinctive features including a subtriangular head in profile, extremely long antennal funiculus segments (about four times longer than wide), and a very long petiole with a low node . This species cannot be kept in captivity as it exists only as a fossil.