More data, more problems? Toward a total evidence phylogeny of the ants

One of the most distinct genera within the Formicidae, Leptomyrmex ants are easily recognizable and exhibit a number of unique attributes. Colloquially called spider ants because of their lanky, gracile habitus and hurried movement, workers will lift their gaster above their mesosoma, giving their body the appearance of a more stout, eight legged arthropod. Extant members of Leptomyrmex exhibit a distribution limited to Australia, New Guinea, and New Caledonia while recent taxonomic and phylogenetic work has shown that there are currently 27 extant and one putative fossil species known today. The discovery of new amber fossil material from the Dominican Republic and India prompts a combined morphology-molecular phylogenetic analysis of the genus with the hope of illuminating relationships among extant and extinct taxa while detailing the biogeographic history of these ants. The combined analysis methodology, potential problems, and applications toward ant phylogenetics as a whole are also discussed.