Temnothorax muellerianus

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Temnothorax muellerianus
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Myrmicinae
Tribe: Crematogastrini
Genus: Temnothorax
Species group: palearctic
Species: T. muellerianus
Binomial name
Temnothorax muellerianus
(Finzi, 1922)

Chalepoxenus muellerianus casent0101880 profile 1.jpg

Chalepoxenus muellerianus casent0101880 dorsal 1.jpg

Specimen Label

Synonyms

This species is a slave-maker of other Temnothorax species. When a nest on Crete was uncovered by Salata, Borowiec & Trichas (2018) both gyne and workers were hiding in soil while host species workers were trying to hide pupae and eggs. Infected nests were located in very dry and sunny localities. Also on Crete, one queenright colony of Temnothorax muellerianus with Temnothorax semiruber as slaves (Buschinger & Douwes, 1990). It is remarkable that Temnothorax semiruber workers are larger than the workers of the slavemaker Temnothorax muellerianus. This contrasts with all other records of this species with other, smaller Temnothorax species.

At a Glance • Dulotic  • Tandem running  

Identification

Prebus (2017) - A member of the Palearctic clade.

Salata et al. (2018) – The social parasite Temnothorax muellerianus is characterized by the presence of a tooth-like projections on the ventral surfaces of the petiole and postpetiole, a deep metanotal groove, and reduced body striation.

Keys including this Species

Distribution

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: 45.533333° to 31.166667°.

   
North
Temperate
North
Subtropical
Tropical South
Subtropical
South
Temperate

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Palaearctic Region: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Iberian Peninsula, Italy (type locality), Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Türkiye.

Distribution based on AntMaps

AntMapLegend.png

Distribution based on AntWeb specimens

Check data from AntWeb

Countries Occupied

Number of countries occupied by this species based on AntWiki Regional Taxon Lists. In general, fewer countries occupied indicates a narrower range, while more countries indicates a more widespread species.
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Estimated Abundance

Relative abundance based on number of AntMaps records per species (this species within the purple bar). Fewer records (to the left) indicates a less abundant/encountered species while more records (to the right) indicates more abundant/encountered species.
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Biology

This species is a slave-maker of the following species:

Association with Other Organisms

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Fungi

This species is a host for the fungus Myrmicinosporidium durum (a pathogen) in Italy (Sanchez-Peña et al., 1993; Buschinger et al., 2004; Espadaler & Santamaria, 2012).

Life History Traits

  • Queen number: monogynous (Ehrhardt, 1982; Frumhoff & Ward, 1992)

Castes

Nomenclature

The following information is derived from Barry Bolton's Online Catalogue of the Ants of the World.

  • muellerianus. Leptothorax (Temnothorax) muellerianus Finzi, 1922: 118, fig. 1 (w.) ITALY. Combination in Chalepoxenus: Finzi, 1924b: 123; in Temnothorax: Ward et al., 2014: 15. Senior synonym of gribodoi: Kutter, 1973d: 276; provisional senior synonym of insubricus, siciliensis: Buschinger, Erhardt, Fischer & Ofer, 1988: 398.
  • gribodoi. Chalepoxenus gribodoi Menozzi, 1923a: 257, figs (w.q.) ITALY. [Spelled gridoboi p. 257, corrected to gribodoi p. 258.] Menozzi, 1925a: 21 (m.). Junior synonym of muellerianus: Kutter, 1973d: 276.
  • insubricus. Chalepoxenus insubricus Kutter, 1950b: 337, figs. (m.) SWITZERLAND. Kutter, 1973d: 279 (w.q.). See also: Kutter, 1977c: 136. Provisional junior synonym of muellerianus: Buschinger, Erhardt, Fischer & Ofer, 1988: 398.
  • siciliensis. Chalepoxenus siciliensis Kutter, 1973d: 278, figs. 1, 3, 4, 6 (w.q.) ITALY (Sicily). Provisional junior synonym of muellerianus: Buschinger, Erhardt, Fischer & Ofer, 1988: 398.

Description

Karyotype

  • n = 12 (Croatia; France; Greece; Italy) (Fischer, 1987) (as Chalepoxenus siciliensis).

References

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

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  • Antarea (at www.antarea.fr on June 11th 2017)
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