Myrmeciites is an extinct form genus of bulldog ants in the subfamily Myrmeciinae of the family Formicidae, which contains three described species and two fossils not placed beyond the genus level. Described in 2006 from Ypresian stage (Early Eocene) deposits, all three of the described species and one unplaced fossil are from British Columbia, Canada, while the second unplaced fossil is from Washington State, USA. These ants were large, with the largest specimens collected reaching 3 centimetres (1.2 in). The behaviour of these ants would have been similar to extant Myrmeciinae ants, such as solitary foraging, nesting either in the soil or trees, and leaving no pheromone trail to food sources. Due to the poor preservation of these ants, their phylogenetic position among Myrmeciinae is unclear, and no type species has been designated. These ants are classified as incertae sedis in Myrmeciinae, but some writers have classified it as incertae sedis within the insect order Hymenoptera. This reclassification, however, has not been accepted; instead, Myrmeciites remains in Myrmeciinae.
Fossils of Myrmeciites were first studied and described by Bruce Archibald, Stefan Cover and Corrie Moreau of the Museum of Comparative Zoology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. They published their 2006 description of the form genus (which is a collection of species formally described but cannot be identified to genus level) in an Annals of the Entomological Society of America journal article.[2] The genus name is a combination of the ant subfamily name "Myrmeciinae" and the Latin suffix "ites", meaning "having the nature of", which is commonly used in the naming of fossil taxa.[3] Its phylogenetic position within Myrmeciinae is unclear, due to the incomplete and poor preservation of the collected specimens.[4] The paper that described the form genus included the description of three species, including Myrmeciites herculeanus, Myrmeciites(?) goliath, and Myrmeciites(?) tabanifluviensis.[2]
Archibald and colleagues classified Myrmeciites as incertae sedis (Latin for "of uncertain placement") within the ant subfamily Myrmeciinae, as the specimens are too poorly preserved to be assigned to any tribe.[5] However, in a 2008 paper, Cesare Baroni Urbani of the University of Basel, Switzerland, classified Myrmeciites as incertae sedis within the insect order Hymenoptera (which comprises the sawflies, wasps, bees and ants) because the critical characters used to identify Myrmeciinae ants, or even the family Formicidae cannot be carried out on Myrmeciites.[6] Despite these comments, a 2012 report by Russian palaeoentomologist Gennady M. Dlussky does not make any comment in regard to Baroni Urbani's views; instead, he accepts the classification of Archibald and colleagues.[7]
Archibald, Cover, and Moreau erected the form genus as an encompassing category for all fossil ants which, while belonging to the subfamily Myrmeciinae, lack details needed for placement in other described genera.[4] This may be due to preservation quality or positioning of the individual ant resulting in obscured details. As Myrmeciites is a form genus it does not have a designated type species per the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature.[4]