Cephalotes caribicus was described based on two fossilised specimens which were preserved as
inclusions in transparent chunks of
Dominican amber. The amber was produced by the extinct
Hymenaea protera, which formerly grew on
Hispaniola, across northern South America and up to southern Mexico. The specimens were collected from an unidentified amber mine in the
Dominican Republic. The amber dates from the
Burdigalian stage of the Miocene being recovered from sections of the
La Toca Formation in the
Cordillera Septentrional and the
Yanigua Formation in the Cordillera Oriental. At the time of description, the
holotype specimen was preserved in the collections of the
State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart, while the paratype was part of the George O. Poinar amber collections at
Oregon State University. Living and fossil
Cephalotes,
Eucryptocerus,
Exocryptocerus and
Zacryptocerus ants were examined in 1999 by Maria L. De Andrade and Cesare Baroni Urbani with a redescription of included species being published in the journal
Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde. Serie B (Geologie und Paläontologie). The two fossils were first
described in the paper along with a number of fossils and were placed into the new species
Cephalotes caribicus. De Andrade and Baroni Urbani coined the
specific epithet caribicus as a reference to region where the species was found.
Phylogeny In the study of
Cephalotes by De Andrade and Baroni Urbani,
C. caribicus was grouped into the
pinelii clade, which is composed of
C. caribicus and eight extant species. The clade shares two distinct morphological features between the species and two coloration patterns. The
mesosoma of
pinelii clade species is modified with expansions of membrane, not seen in related clades. Additionally the antennae have a terminal club formed from the last two antennae segments rather than the last three segments. In the living species the gaster of the workers have a pair of spots or stripes and four spots are present on the gasters of
gynes. Due to a fine layer of gas over the surface of each of the
C. caribicus worker fossils in amber, the coloration was not distinguishable by De Andrade and Baroni Urbani, but color patterns were.
C. caribicus was consistently placed as a sister species
Cephalotes incertus, both of which were nested deep in the clade. |label2=
C.
pinelii clade |2= }} }} ==Description==