Ants of sardinia: An updated checklist based on new faunistic, morphological and biogeographical notes

13Citations
Citations of this article
8Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.
Get full text

Abstract

Sardinia is the second largest island in the Mediterranean region, receiving significant attention due to its interesting fauna and flora. The last checklist of Sardinian ants was published more than a decade ago, and, since then, it got outdated by numerous taxonomic and faunistic novelties. As a result of recent collecting efforts across the island, we present the first Sardinian records of Messor ibericus Santschi, 1931, Solenopsis lusitanica Emery, 1915 (new to Italy), Temnothorax aveli Bondroit, 1918 and Tetramorium atratulum (Schenck, 1852), while proposing to consider Solenopsis fugax (Latreille, 1798) and Temnothorax affinis (Mayr, 1855) as absent. We report for the first time a parasite-host association between Tetramorium atratulum and Tetramorium semilaeve André, 1883, and the conspicuous presence of ergatogynes within a Solenopsis colony (S. lusitanica). Morphological insights on the little-known S. lusitanica and S. orbula Emery, 1875 are also discussed. We combined the new findings and previous literature data into an updated checklist of 77 taxa and discuss a first biogeographic analysis of the Sardinian ants aided by chorotypes. Eurasian, European, Euro-Mediterranean and West-Mediterranean taxa are the numerically prevalent groups, while the overall number of species is significantly lower than in the other large Mediterranean islands. Considerable knowledge gaps still remain and some species are known to require additional taxonomic investigation.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

SCHIFANI, E., NALINI, E., GENTILE, V., ALAMANNI, F., ANCONA, C., CARIA, M., … BAZZATO, E. (2021). Ants of sardinia: An updated checklist based on new faunistic, morphological and biogeographical notes. Redia, 104, 21–35. https://doi.org/10.19263/REDIA-104.21.03

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free