Formica dusmeti Emery, 1909, an Iberian endemic ant species: description of the male and distribution (Hymenoptera: Formicidae).

4 Pages·2000·0.31 MB·English

by  Espadaler, X.

ANNALES ZOOLOGICI
(Warszawa),2000,50(1): 39-41
FORMICA DUSMETI EMERY, AN IBERIAN ENDEMIC ANT
1909,
SPECIES: DESCRIPTION OF THE MALE AND DISTRIBUTION
(HYMENOPTERA: FORMICIDAE)
Xa\1ER ESPADAI.ER1 and CRISANTO G6MEZ2
'C.K.EA.F. UniversitatAutotioiiia di'Barcelona. 081.93Bellaterra, Spain: e-iiiail: ibeco&cc.uah.es
•^UepartamentdeCieitciesAmbieiital.s. i'tiirersitatdeGiroua. 17071 Girona. Spain
—
Abstract. The maleof the iberian endemic ant FormicadusmetiEmery, 1909isdescribed. The short-
er scape and hairless appendices differentiate those males from those ofthe closest species F.frontalis
Santschi and F. truncorum Fabricius. The distributionoiF. dusmetiis updated.
—
Keywords. Hjinenoptera. Formicidae,/br;w/ra dusmeti, Iberian, male, morphology'.
Introduction SI - scape index (SL*100/HW)
ED - maximum eye diameter
F.dnsmeti is awood ant, constructingdome nestswith El - eye index (ED*100/HWO
plant debris or pine needles. Nests may be found under AW - alitrunk width: maximum trunk width, at the level
stonesthough sometimes theyuseold stumps, alwayswith oftegulae
plant remains accumulated near the nest entrance or cov- AL - alitrunk length
eringmore or less the stump. Its biologj' is probably simi- AI - alitrunk index (AW"100A'L)
lartothewell known "rufa-group". "Lemaledifferepen de PH - petioleheigth: maximumpetioleheight in side^iew.
celuidetriuicorum" (Santschi 1932). This isthe short and
uninformativc description ofthemaleolFormica dusmeti
Formicadusmeti Emery 1909
Emery, 1909. Santschi was right. This species, whose biol-
ogy- is \irtually unknown, has had a rather confusing his- Material examined. Description based on material
tory. Tinaut and Martinez (1998) when describingthe male from Bescaran, Lleida, 1750 m, 4 July 1991, leg. X.
oiF froidalis Santschi, 1919, alsoan Iberian species,have
Espadaler, and Aranser, Lleida, 1800 m, 12 July 1997, leg.
correctly disentangled the puzzling of those two Iberian
X. Espadaler.
erencdoegmniicsse.dFa.sfaroigiotoddlisspehcaides.neBvoetrhbteaexna bheafvoerebefeonrmvaalrliy- DescHption. Male (Figs. 1, 2). HL 1.40-1.52-1.64: im
1.72-1.88-2.08: SL 1.44-1.58-1.68: CI 116.2-123.6-129.7: SI
ously related Xo F. truncorum Fabricius, 1804. The three 79.1-83.9-88.8: ED 0.72-0.75-0.80: EI 37.5-40.3-41.6;
speciesF. truncorum Fabricius, F. dusmeti Emery andF. AL 3.20-3.57-3.72; AW2.00-2.17-2.2.40;AI 53.7-60.9-66.2.
froutalis Santschihaveasimilarcolorationbecauseofthe
PH 0.92-1.02-1.24.
reddish head with a dark spot of the workers and queens
and areprobablyamonophyleticgroup. Thehistoryoftax- Body entirely black. Tip of mandibles and legs, except
onomical changes concerningboth species has been sum- fortheblackenedcoxae, reddishyellow. Inafewmales one
or two terminal tarsomeres are darkened. External geni-
marised byTinaut and Martinez (1998).
The finding of a huge population ofF dusmeti in the talia yellowish. Wings infuscated.
P\Tences allowed us to find sufficient males, that eclosed Head broader than long. Occipital margin variable,
from cocoons belonging to two nests from two localities. from slightly convex to slightly concave. Ocelli 0.16.
Herewedescribethosemales and offerthe distributionfor Frontalfurrowas averyfine shiningline, sometimes near-
the species, as is presently known. Cephahc measures on ly obsolete, not reachingthe median ocellus. Ch'peus with
20 males, mm (minimum-mean-maximum): other mea- or without a carina; if present it runs from the middle to
surements based on 10 males. The morphology (25 males the anterior margin. In a halfofthe males there is a trans-
studied) follows Francoeur (1973): verse depression, visible in profile, runningnear the ante-
HL - headlength; maximumheadlength, from occiput to rior margin. Mandibles usually with a single apical tooth:
apex of ch'peus in a few males the basal margin is not rounded but pro-
W\\ - head width: maximum head width duced in a sharp corner as a second pooiiy developed
SL - scape length tooth. Palp formula 6:4. Head surface with subdued shine.
Ci - cephalic index (m\"---100/HL) Frontal triangle shining.
40 X. EsPADAUR and C. Gomez
Thorax entirely matt but for the shining middle region studied and determined as/:dusmeti by Santschi in 1932.
ofpropodeum. Petiolevariable, with a straight dorsalmar- comingfrom threelocalities (aqueen from Soure, aworker
gin or a wide dorsal concavity. Longhairs present on the fromSantaremandamalefrom Jugueiras). Thecomments
entire surface but for the middle zone of dorsal margin of by Santschi on pilosityofthe queen are in agreement with
the petiole. characteristics ofFfrontalis-not oiFdusmeti-and, so,
WTiole of the body covered with a dense pubescence. there is a possibility that Santschi's F dusmeti males
Pilosityfromsubdecumbenttoerect. Numeroushairsondor- belonginF froidalis. It remains to be confirmed the pres-
sumofgaster.Tibiaewithouthairsonextensorsurface. Eyes ence oiF dusmeti in Portugal.
with micropilosity (0.03). Genitalia without any distinctive The males ofF dusmeti, as compared with those ofF.
characteristicbut forthe colour, bright orange-reddish. frontalis, have a shorter scape foragiven headwidth and,
Males and workers have been deposited in theauthor's accordingly a different scape index (Table 1). None of the
collection (X.E.) and in the Museum and Institute of
Zoology, PolishAcademy of Sciences, Warsaw (Poland).
Geographical distribution
This is not an easy question to settle. Until recently,
many authors have confused F. frontalis with F. dusmeti
and, consequently, literature data are unsecure. We have
checkedas muchsamplesaspossiblefrom allthat hasbeen
publishedunderthenamesF.dusmetiorF.froidalis (noted
with '- in the following account). The distribution, as is
presentlyknown,isreportedbasedonprovinces, references
added and comments as needed.All locaUties are in Spain:
Albacete:CerroPeiiaBlanca(TinautandMartinez 1998)
Burgos: Cubillos* (Tinaut and Martinez 1998)
Jaen: Nava de Paulo'-; Mt. Empanadas* (Espadaler
1997).
Leon: Peredilla", workers, 8 June 1983 (Espadaler
leg.); Villalbina (Tinaut and Martinez 1998)
Lleida: Ai-anser",1800 m, workers, winged females,
males; Bescaran*, 1750 m, workers, winged females,
males (Espadaler leg.)
Logrono: Collado de Sancho Leza*, 1400 m, workers,
winged females, 14 June 1990 (Espadaler leg.)
Madrid: Pefialara (Emery 1909); S" de Guadarrama
(xMartinez 1987)
Navarra: no localitygiven (Tinaut and Martinez 1998)
Soria: Pineda de .41mazan* (CoUingwood and Yarrow
1909); Vinuesa-,1100 m, females, 4 August 1986
(Espadaler leg.)
Teruel: Tramacastilla'- (CoUingwoodandYarrow 1969);
Sierra de Albarracin (Martinez and Tinaut 1996)
Zamora: Cubillos", workers; Galendc*, (Colhngwood,
personal communication, 1996)
We have been able to locate with precision the altitude
for some samples ofboth species andF dusmeti is found
at higher altitudes (mean ± s.d.: 1550 ± 275 m;
n=6) Wv&nF frontalis (mean ± s.d.: 1160 ± 450
m; n=15).
Discussion
Formica dusmeti seems to be less abundant
thanFfrontalis. In special, it seems absent from
Portugal (see comments on F. dusmeti in
CoUingwood and Prince 1998). We have been
unable to locate the original Portuguese material
THE MALE OF FORMICA DUSMETI 41
Acknowledgments CoUingwood, C. A. and I. H. H. Yarrow. 1969. A survey of Iberian
Formicidae(Hymenoptera). Eos,44:53-101.
TothestaffoftheMuseudeHistoriaNaturalofCoimbra Espadaler,X. 1997.FormicidosdelasSierrasdeCazorla,delPozoySegura
for comments about the original material of Santschi. To (Jaen,Espaiia) (Hymenoptera,Formicidae).Ecologia, 11:489-499.
C. Baroni Urbani (then at the Naturhistorisches Museum Frangcroeouurp,eA.fu1s9c7a3.. RegveinsrieonFtoarxmoniocmaiqu(eFodremsiceisdpaeec,esHnyemaernctoipqtueersa)d.u
Basel) for the loan of type material ofF. frontalis and to MemoiresdelaSocieteEntomologiqueduQuebec,3: 1-316.
K. Yamauchi (Gifu, Japan) for the loan of samples of Martinez, M. D. 1987. Las hormigas (Hym. Formicidae) dela Sierrade
F.truncomm. We also thankCedricA. CoUingwoodforthe Guadarrama.BoletindelaAsociacionespaiioladeEntomologia, 11:
385-394.
comments on doubtful samples and for his kind accueil- Martinez, M. D. and A. Tinauf. 1996. Nuevas especies de Formicidos
lanee at Skipton in 1996; and for allthe efforts he has done (HjTnenoptera, Formicidae) para la Sierra deAlbarracin (Teruel).
on helpingIberian myrmecology. XIIBienaldelaSociedadespaiioladeHistoriaNatural,Tomoextra-
ordinario: 174-177.
Santschi, F. 1932. Fourmis du Portugal. Memorias e Estudos doMuseu
References
Zoologico da Universidade de Coimbra, Ser 1, Zoologia
Sistematica,59: 1-3.
CoUingwood, C. A, and A. Prince. 1998. Aguide to ants otcontinental Tinaut, A. and M. D. Martinez. 1998. Taxonomy and distribution of
Portugal.BoletimdaSociedadePortuguesadeEntomologia, Suppl. Formica dusmeti Emery 1909 and oiF. frontalis Santschi, 1919
5: 9-49. (Hymenoptera,Formicidae). Graellsia54:31-41.
iteceived:October 1, 1999 CorrespondingEditor:S.A.Slipiriski
.Accepted: December 15, 1999 IssueEditor: D.Iwan
42 X. EsPADALER and C. Gomez
*HEISS*
'DSM9S0fi
Fig. \.FormicadusmetiEmery.Aranser,Lleida,Spain.Malecephaliccap- Fig.2.FormicadusmetiEmery.Aranser,Lleida,Spain.Maleeye, showing
sule,frontalview. ashortmicropilosity.
Fig.3.Formica fronUdis Santschi. SantLlorencjdeMorunys,Lleida, Fig.4.FormicafrontcdisSantschi.SantLlorengdeMorunys,Lleida,Spain.
Spain. Malecephaliccapsule, frontalview. Male eye, with rare micropilosity. This is an extreme example as usually
therearesome 10microscopichairs.
Fig. 5.Formica tritricorum Fabricius.Ochotnica,GorceMts,Poland.Male Fig. 6.Formica truncorum Fabricius.Ochotnica,GorceMts,Poland. Male
cephaliccapsule,frontalview. eye,withabundantandlongpilosity