Oecophylla sicula

Introduction

Oecophylla sicula is an extinct weaver ant preserved in Sicilian amber from the Oligocene/Miocene period . Workers are about 7 mm long . It is closely related to the living Oecophylla smaragdina . The fossil shows subtle differences like a wider head and less convex thorax, representing more generalized features of ancient weaver ants . This species was a European representative of what are now tropical Asian and African ants, showing how weaver ants once lived in warmer Europe before becoming restricted to tropics.