Schifani Enrico, Alicata Antonio, Borowiec Lech, García Fede, Gentile Vincenzo, Gómez Kiko, Nalini Elia, Rigato Fabrizio, Schär Sämi, Scupola Antonio, Vila Roger, Menchetti Mattia
Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences, and Environmental Sustainability, University of Parma, Parma, Italy.
Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC-Univ. Pompeu Fabra), Barcelona, Spain.
Zookeys. 2023 Mar 16;1153:141-156. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.1153.98297. eCollection 2023.
There are only two species from the group in the western Mediterranean: Santschi, 1925, from south-western Europe, and (Latreille, 1798), also occurring in central and eastern Europe. Historically, the two species have been widely misunderstood: was long considered a Sardinian endemic subspecies of , while its continental populations were misidentified as s. str. Recently, was elevated to species rank and its worker caste was redescribed with that of , allowing for their correct identification. Yet their distribution was documented in detail only for France and Sardinia. Furthermore, no morphological characters were described to distinguish the males and queens of the two species. By investigating private and museum collections, 276 new records of are provided here and 154 of from the western Mediterranean. Additionally, qualitative and quantitative morphological characters were combined to identify their males and queens. We present the new southernmost, easternmost, and westernmost distribution limits for . Based on our results, this species is widely distributed in Italy and Catalonia (Spain), also occurring on several Mediterranean islands, avoiding areas with continental climate and high altitudes. Sicily is the only island to host the less thermophilous , which otherwise extends westward to Galicia (Spain). Sympatric occurrence is not rare along the contact zone. Additional natural history observations are reported regarding foraging habits, associated myrmecophiles, habitat preferences, and colony structure in the two species.
在地中海西部，该类群仅有两个物种：1925年发现于欧洲西南部的桑氏蚁（Santschi, 1925），以及也分布于中欧和东欧的（拉特雷尔蚁，Latreille, 1798）。历史上，这两个物种一直被广泛误解：桑氏蚁长期被视为拉特雷尔蚁的一个撒丁岛特有亚种，而其在大陆的种群则被误鉴定为拉特雷尔蚁指名亚种。最近，桑氏蚁被提升为独立物种，其工蚁品级也与拉特雷尔蚁一同被重新描述，从而能够对它们进行正确识别。然而，仅在法国和撒丁岛对它们的分布进行了详细记录。此外，尚未描述区分这两个物种的雄蚁和蚁后的形态特征。通过对私人收藏和博物馆藏品的调查，本文提供了276条桑氏蚁的新记录以及154条来自地中海西部的拉特雷尔蚁的记录。此外，结合定性和定量的形态特征来识别它们的雄蚁和蚁后。我们给出了桑氏蚁最南端、最东端和最西端的新分布界限。根据我们的结果，该物种广泛分布于意大利和加泰罗尼亚（西班牙），也出现在几个地中海岛屿上，避开了大陆性气候和高海拔地区。西西里岛是唯一有不太嗜热的拉特雷尔蚁栖息的岛屿，否则该物种向西延伸至加利西亚（西班牙）。在接触带，同域分布并不罕见。还报告了关于这两个物种觅食习性、相关蚁客、栖息地偏好和蚁群结构的其他自然史观察结果。
