Lasius emarginatus (Olivier, 1792)

Schär, Sämi, Menchetti, Mattia, Schifani, Enrico, Hinojosa, Joan Carles, Platania, Leonardo, Dapporto, Leonardo & Vila, Roger, 2020, Integrative biodiversity inventory of ants from a Sicilian archipelago reveals high diversity on young volcanic islands (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), Organisms Diversity & Evolution (New York, N. Y.) 20 (3), pp. 405-416 : 412

Lasius emarginatus

The mitochondrial DNA of representatives of this taxon showed an unexpected pattern of relationships. Lasius emarginatus was found to be paraphyletic by DNA barcoding, although with little support ( Fig. 2 ). Samples from Italy and the Aeolian Islands cluster together, while a sample from western Sicily (Monte Pellegrino, specimen 143) appears as an outlier, with a divergence of 3% ( Table 2). However, strong morphological differences between this and the other specimens were not observed. It appears to be somewhat hairier than other L. emarginatus and shows a more homogenous coloration (ESM 1, specimen 143 vs. 135–137). It is thus possible that this population represents a distinct lineage or even a cryptic species, which could be a subject of future investigations.

Figures

Fig. 2 Maximum likelihood tree of 143 DNA barcodes belonging to 44 ant taxa. The scale bar indicates the number of changes per site. The colours given at nodes show % node support from 1000 bootstrap replicates.