Leptothorax gredleri

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Leptothorax gredleri
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Myrmicinae
Tribe: Crematogastrini
Genus: Leptothorax
Species: L. gredleri
Binomial name
Leptothorax gredleri
Mayr, 1855

Leptothorax gredleri casent0179904 p 1 high.jpg

Leptothorax gredleri casent0179904 d 1 high.jpg

Specimen Labels

Alate queens of this species practice female calling, i.e., they leave their natal nest, climb onto vegetation, and release pheromone from their extruded sting to attract males.

Photo Gallery

  • Leptothorax gredleri worker. Phot by Michal Kukla.

Identification

Keys including this Species

Distribution

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: 59.930404° to 42.7°.

 
North
Temperate
North
Subtropical
Tropical South
Subtropical
South
Temperate

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Palaearctic Region: Austria (type locality), Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iberian Peninsula, Montenegro, Norway, Poland, Russian Federation, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland.

Distribution based on AntMaps

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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

Nest in small sticks in pine forest.

Females practice female calling outside their natal nest, then either found a new nest alone, seek adoption in another nest, or return to their own nest. Colonies that contain more than one queen exhibit functional monogyny.

Bernadou et al. (2016) studied the behavior of newly mated queens. They found queens can distinguish their natal nest using cuticular hydrocarbons found on a substrate. Overall there was a preference for newly mated queens to choose a nest previously used by their natal nestmates. For queens adopted back into their natal nest within laboratory nests, a large majority of these queens were killed within the eight weeks. They concluded newly mated queens may preferentially re-inhabit their natal nest after mating, then subsequently leave before they are killed.

Flight Period

X X
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Source: antkeeping.info.

Association with Other Organisms

Explore-icon.png Explore: Show all Associate data or Search these data. See also a list of all data tables or learn how data is managed.

This species is a host for the ant Harpagoxenus sublaevis (a slave maker) (Foitzik et al., 2003; Guillem et al., 2014; de la Mora et al., 2021).

Life History Traits

  • Queen number: monogynous (Frumhoff & Ward, 1992) (functional monogyny)

Castes

Worker

Images from AntWeb

Leptothorax gredleri casent0281542 h 1 high.jpgLeptothorax gredleri casent0281542 p 1 high.jpgLeptothorax gredleri casent0281542 d 1 high.jpgLeptothorax gredleri casent0281542 l 1 high.jpg
Worker. Specimen code casent0281542. Photographer Estella Ortega, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences. Owned by CAS, San Francisco, CA, USA.

Queen

Images from AntWeb

Leptothorax gredleri casent0281541 h 1 high.jpgLeptothorax gredleri casent0281541 p 1 high.jpgLeptothorax gredleri casent0281541 d 1 high.jpgLeptothorax gredleri casent0281541 l 1 high.jpg
Queen (alate/dealate). Specimen code casent0281541. Photographer Estella Ortega, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences. Owned by CAS, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Leptothorax gredleri casent0901772 h 1 high.jpgLeptothorax gredleri casent0901772 p 1 high.jpgLeptothorax gredleri casent0901772 p 2 high.jpgLeptothorax gredleri casent0901772 d 1 high.jpgLeptothorax gredleri casent0901772 l 1 high.jpg
Syntype of Leptothorax gredleriQueen (alate/dealate). Specimen code casent0901772. Photographer Ryan Perry, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences. Owned by NHMUK, London, UK.

Nomenclature

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

  • gredleri. Leptothorax gredleri Mayr, 1855: 438 (w.q.) AUSTRIA. Schenck, 1861: 196 (m.). Combination in L. (Mychothorax): Forel, 1915d: 26. Junior synonym of muscorum: Roger, 1862c: 296. Revived from synonymy as subspecies of muscorum: Forel, 1874: 87. Raised to species: Bondroit, 1918: 122. Subspecies of muscorum: Dalla Torre, 1893: 125; Emery, 1916b: 176; Emery, 1924d: 262; Stitz, 1939: 163; Novak & Sadil, 1941: 90. Junior synonym of muscorum: Brown, 1955a: 47 (in text). Revived from synonymy and status as species: Buschinger, 1966b: 165. See also: Bernard, 1967: 389; Baroni Urbani, 1971c: 98; Pisarski, 1975: 24; Kutter, 1977c: 129; Seifert, 2007: 225.

Description

Karyotype

  • n = 11 (Germany; Switzerland) (Buschinger et al., 1980; Fischer, 1987; Loiselle et al., 1990).

References

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

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  • Dubovikoff D. A., and Z. M. Yusupov. 2018. Family Formicidae - Ants. In Belokobylskij S. A. and A. S. Lelej: Annotated catalogue of the Hymenoptera of Russia. Proceedingss of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences 6: 197-210.
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