Cephalotes maya

Introduction

Cephalotes maya is an extinct ant species known only from fossilized workers preserved in Mexican amber dating to the Oligocene-Miocene period (approximately 23-5 million years ago). Workers measured about 3.78 mm in total length and had broad, wing-shaped membranaceous expansions on the mesosoma, petiole, postpetiole, and gaster, giving them a flattened, leaf-like appearance . The species was formally described in 1999 by de Andrade and Baroni Urbani based on amber-preserved worker morphology . It belongs to the grandinosus clade and can be distinguished from its sister species Cephalotes foliaceus by the first gastral tergite lacking a membranaceous border . The specific name 'maya' honors the Maya civilization, as the amber originated from the Simojovel region of Chiapas, Mexico, historically inhabited by the Maya .