What is "Leptothorax nylanderi" (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Russian and former Soviet literature?

3 Pages·2000·0.14 MB·English

by  Radchenko, A. G.

ANNALES ZOOLOGICI
(Warszawa),2000,50(1): 43-45
WHAT ''LEPTOTHORAXNYLANDERT' (HYMENOPTERA:
IS
FORMICIDAE) IN RUSSIAN AND FORMER
SOVIET LITERATURE?
Alexander Radchenko
MuseumandInstituteofZoology,PolishAcadenu/ofSciences, Witcza64, 00-679, Warsaw.Potand:
e-mail: ivcz(cirobal.miiz.wan:pl
—
Abstract. It is shown that the name "Leptothoro.r tujianderi" as used by all earlier Russian
authors,isamisidentification.ThespeciesdistributedthrougiioutEastEuropeandtheCaucasus
isreallyL. crassispinu-sKarawajew, 1926(hererewedfromsynonyTnyandstat.nov.,andsenior
synonymofZ. slaronicusSeifert, 1995syn. nov.).ThereisanarrowzoneofoverlapoiL. njjlan-
deri and L. crassi.spinus in East Germany and West Poland but the situation in the Balkans
needs furtherclarification.
—
Keywords. Ants, F'ormicidae,Leptothoraxnylanderi, taxonomy.
The ant Leptothora,c nylanderi was described by between their tips from above. Fig. 4). This is would
Forster (1850) based on the male from north-west appear to be a different species fromL. nylanderi.
Germany (Aahen). Later, Maw (1855) described workers Karawajew (1926a: 51) described L. nylanderi van
and females and re-described the males ofthis species. crassispina from workers and queens collected in the
According to Mayi"'s description workers ofZ. nylan- wcinity of Kiev (Ukraine), based on comparison with fig-
deri are characterised by: yellow or light reddish-yellow ures oiL. nylanderi from Emery (1916: 181). Karawajew
colour ofthe body, brownish head dorsum and entirelyyel- described the workers of this new variety as having
low antennae; the first gastral segment has a brownish "propodeal spines wider than in typical form, gradually
band on itstergiteand sternite,whichreacheshindmargin narrowed to the tips and slightly curved down". However,
of the segment; other gastral segments have brownish later Karawajew (1934) \vith no additional comments syoi-
bands only on the tergites, and "in other respects it is like onymised van crassispina with L. nylanderi. This syn-
L. unifa,sci<itns" (Maw, 1855: 175) (i.e. propodeal spines onymywas confirmed by^Radchenko (1995).
are not longand not cur\'ed down!). From the description Seifert (1995) was the first recent author to pay atten-
ofqueens the most important feature is "metanotal spines tion to the differences in shape of propodeal spines
are quite short" (loc. cit.). between the western and eastern populations of the
From the end of the last century up to recent time all species of"L. nylanderi". He described theEasternpopu-
West-European myrmecologists (Emery, 1916; Stitz,
1939; Kutter, 1977; Collingwood, 1979; Agosti and
CoUingwood, 1987; Seifert, 1995, 1996, etc.) treated L.
nylanderimoreorlessaccordingtoMayr'sdescription,
particularly pointing out that propodeal spines of the
workers arerelativelyshort, acute, notwideat thebase
and not cun'ed down (Fig. 1), and propodeal spines of
queensarealsoquiteshort (lengthofspine2.5-3.0times
shorterthan distancebetween theirtips. Fig. 2).
However, all Russian and former Soviet ant taxon-
omists (Karawajew, 1926c, 1934; Arnoldi, Dlussky,
1978; Radchenko, 1994, 1995; Radchenko, Czechowski
and Czechowska, 1999a) followed Ruzsky (1905) and
treated as L. nylanderi a species whose workers
havepropodeal spineswhich are relatively long, wide
at the base and cun'cd downwards (Fig. 3). The I""igiii'es. 1-4. Details ol structure of Leplolliora.r uiildiideri (1 - worker. 2 -
propodeal spines ofqueens arealso quite long(length queen) and L. criiKsispi-itns (W - worker, 4 - queen) (1. :i - alitrunk and waist
of spine only 1.5-2.0 times shorter than distance ill profile: 2. 4-propodeal spinesfromabove).
44 A. Radchenko
WHAT IS "LEPTOTHORAXNYLANDERI" (HYMENOPTERA, FORMICIDE) 45
Ruzsky,M.D. 1902.MaterialstothemjTmecofaunaoftheCaucasusand 1923 (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Abhandlungen und Berichte des
Crimea.Prilozhenickprotokolamobschestvaestestvoispj-tateleipri NaturkundemuseumsGorlitz, (58(7): 1-17.
KazanskomImperatorskomUniversitete,206: 1-33 (inRussian). Seifert, B. 1996. Ameisen: beobachten, bestimmen. Augsburg, Natur-
Ruzsky,M. D. 1905.TheantsofRussia.-Kazan. 798pp (inRussian). buch-Varl. 352 S.
Seifert,B. 1995.TwonewCentralEuropeansubspeciesoiLeptothorax Stitz, H. 1939. Hauttlugler oder Hymenoptera. 1. Ameisen oder Formi-
tu)landi'ri (Forster, 1850) and Leptothorax sordidulus Muller, cidae. DahlTierwelt Deutschlands,37: 1-428.
Received:,Ianuar>'29,2000 CorrespondingEditor: D. Iwan
.Accepted:February28,2000 IssueEditor: D. Iwan