Aphaenogaster illyrica, a new species from the mountains of the Balkan Peninsula (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

Abstract

Aphaenogasterillyricasp. nov., a member of the A.subterranea species group, is described from Dinaric Alps of Slovenia and Croatia, from Golešnica Mt. in north Macedonia, Osogovo-Belasica Massif of southwestern Bulgaria, and from Kerkini Mts. of Greek Macedonia. It is characterised by large body size, moderately sculptured head, elevated mesonotum, and long propodeal spines. Its habitat preferences are discussed. A key to the Aphaenogastergraeca complex is provided.

Revisiting the morphological species groups of West-Palearctic Aphaenogaster ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) under a phylogenetic perspective: toward an evolutionary classification

“…A mostly East-Mediterranean group defined by Schulz (1994), Boer ( 2013), Alicata and Schifani (2019), Galkowski et al ( 2019) and Bračko et al (2019) based on worker morphology, and includes six taxa: A. graeca Schulz 1994 (Greece), A. ichnusa Santschi, 1925 (France, Italy, Spain), A. illyrica Bračko et al, 2019 (Bosnia andHerzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Macedonia), A. kurdica (Ruzsky, 1905) (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Russia), A. maculifrons Kiran and Aktaç, 2008 (Türkiye), and A. subterranea (Latreille, 1798) (Albania, Austria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iran, Italy, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Türkiye, Ukraine).…”

“…Defining combination of morphological characters (based on Schulz 1994;Bračko et al 2019): Medium-sized forms, shallow sculpture, large parts of the body shiny. But always at least the front part of the head is dull covered with shallow wrinkles.…”

“…The Mediterranean region is a widely recognized key biodiversity hotspot for terrestrial organisms (Médail and Quézel 1999) and it hosts the largest portion of the world's Aphaenogaster diversity, which becomes the vast majority of the species if the Deromyrma clade is not counted. In his catalogue, Borowiec (2014) presented an impressive list of 82 valid taxa, and additional species have been described since then, rising the number at over 100 taxa (Borowiec and Salata 2014;Salata and Borowiec 2016;Gómez et al 2018;Alicata and Schifani 2019;Bračko et al 2019;Salata et al 2021). Interestingly, this diversity is not only a matter of species richness but also remarkable in morphological and ecological terms.…”

New and little-known ant species (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) from Bulgaria

“…Regardless, it significantly increased the knowledge on species diversity as the previously published review listed only 111 species ( Atanassov and Dlussky 1992 ). Since the latest catalogue was published, 33 species have been added and important progress has been made in taxonomic studies focused on the diversity of cryptic species of the genera Lasius , Messor , Temnothorax and Tetramorium ( Lapeva-Gjonova and Kiran 2012 , Borowiec 2014 , Csősz et al 2014 , Lapeva-Gjonova et al 2014 , Csősz et al 2015 , Seifert and Csősz 2015 , Seifert 2016 , Seifert and Galkowski 2016 , Kiran et al 2017 , Wagner et al 2017 , Csősz et al 2018 , Steiner et al 2018 , Borowiec et al 2019 , Bračko et al 2019 , Ljubomirov 2019 , Lapeva-Gjonova and Ljubomirov 2020 , Seifert 2020 , Lapeva-Gjonova and Radchenko 2021 ).…”