Cardiocondyla bicoronata Seifert 2003

Seifert, Bernhard, 2023, A revision of the Palaearctic species of the ant genus Cardiocondyla Emery 1869 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), Zootaxa 5274 (1), pp. 1-64 : 46

Cardiocondyla bicoronata Seifert 2003 , n.syn. [type investigation]

This taxon has been described from Jordan. Investigated were the holotype worker and two paratype workers labelled “JORDANIA: 1996.03.21, Shaumari Wildlife Reserve , 31.47N 36.42E, leg. Dietrich No 5” and three paratype workers labelled “ JORDANIA: 1996.03.21, Shaumari Wildlife Reserve, 31.47N 36.42E, leg. Dietrich No 6”; SMN Görlitz .

All material examined. Forty-five samples with 95 workers were morphometrically investigated. For details see supplementary information SI1, SI2. This material originated from Algeria (1 sample), Cape Verde (1), Cyprus (8), Egypt (2), Iran (4), Israel (7), Jordan (7), Morocco (1), Portugal (1), “Turkestan” (1), Tunisia (10), Turkey (1) and Yemen (1).

Geographic range. Probably continuously distributed from Portugal and Morocco (9.2°W) over Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt east to the Iran (56.2°E). The southernmost and northermost sites are in Yemen at 15.4°N and in Portugal at 38.8°N. The altitudinal distribution ranges from 213 m below to 2254 m above sea level. One isolated site is from the island Sao Vicente of the Cape Verde Archipelago .

Diagnosis: --Worker ( Tab. 3 , Figs. 78–81 ; images under CASENT0281805, CASENT0908336 in www.antweb.org; key). Polymorphic. Rather small, CS 538 µm. Head moderately long, CL/CW 1.174. Postocular index small, PoOc/ CL 0.366. Median third of hind margin of head slightly excavated. Scape moderately long, SL/CS 0.813. Eye large, EYE/CS 0.263. Frons rather narrow (FRS/CS 0.243), frontal carinae moderately converging immediately caudal of FRS level (FL/FR 1.067). Dorsal profile of promesonotum moderately convex, metanotal depression moderately deep (MGr/CS 3.65 %), dorsal profile of propodeum moderately convex. Propodeal spines short (SP/CS 0.098); in lateral view varying from short triangular to longer and acute with their axis differing by 47° from longitudinal axis of mesosoma; spine bases approached (SPBA/CS 0.229). Petiole distinctly higher than wide (PeW/CS 0.266, PeH/CS 0.300), in profile with a rather short peduncle, a straight to weakly convex anterior face and the anterior slope of the node slightly less inclined than the posterior one. Petiole node in dorsal view varying between longer than wide in the bicoronata morph to as long as wide in the nigra morph. Postpetiole moderately wide and rather low (PpW/CS 0.503, PpW /PeW 1.89, PpH/CS 0.259), in dorsal view with a straight to weakly concave anterior margin; postpetiolar sternite completely flat. Clypeus overall rather smooth and shiny, lateral clypeus longitudinally carinulate. Frontal lobes and area posterior of the frontal lobes longitudinally rugulose-carinulate. Longitudinal sculpture on dorsal head in the nigra morph weaker and restricted to the area posterior of the frontal laminae, in the bicoronata morph stronger developed; a rather narrow median stripe on vertex is in both morphs smooth and shiny. Foveolae on vertex shallow, of 14–19 µm diameter, with an inner corona that is weakly visible in the nigra morph, foveolar margins not ideally circular, sometimes kinked or breached by short microrugulae running partially or entirely through the foveolae; foveolar interspaces as wide or wider than foveolar diameter, shiny and with fine cross-branched to semireticulate microstructures ( Figs. 81 and 85 ). Dorsal promesonotum in the bicoronata morph with shallow foveolae and finely microreticulate-carinulate, these structures are in the nigra morph absent or much weaker. Lateral meso- and metapleuron in the bicoronata morph with relatively strong and in the nigra morph with weak longitudinal rugosity. Petiole and postpetiole smooth and shiny but delicately microreticulate. Pubescence on gaster tergites short and dilute, PLG/CS 5.46 %, sqPDG 5.08. Strong color polymorphism. Head and gaster usually dark to blackish brown but pigmentation of mesosoma and waist varying from dark to blackish brown to light reddish brown. Concolorous dirty yellowish brown workers were observed in the sample from Turkestan.

Taxonomic comments and clustering results. There is much polymorphism in morphometric and pigmentation data, petiole shape and sculpture within the 45 nest samples investigated here and classified as Cardiocondyla nigra . Yet, none of the five forms of exploratory data analyses run was able to reasonably dissolve separate clusters. As result, the taxa C. bicoronata and C. torretassoi were synonymized with C. nigra . Seifert (2003) proposed a character combination of more clearly bicoronate foveolae, stronger microsculpture on head and mesosoma as well as a longer petiole node as diagnostic to separate C. bicoronata from C. nigra . As these three characters were not numerically recorded, no objective testing of their real value is possible. The clear separation of C. batesii from the taxa synonymized here under C. nigra has been shown in the section treating the former species (p. 41) and in Fig. 112 .

Biology. Nest populations collected in Cyprus and observed in the laboratory may contain several ergatoid males which did not fight ( Schrempf 2014).

Figures

FIGURES 78–81. Cardiocondyla nigra; Fig. 78: head in dorsal view; Fig. 79: lateral view; Fig. 80: dorsal view; Fig. 81: head surface between inner eye margin and paramedian vertex (flipped horizontally). Cyprus: Linda Evangelista, 2003.03

FIGURES 82–85. Cardiocondyla verdensis n. sp., holotype; Fig. 82: head in dorsal view; Fig. 83: lateral view; Fig. 84: dorsal view; Fig. 85: head surface between inner eye margin and paramedian vertex. Cape Verde: Sao Nicolao, 2003.07.21

FIGURES 109–113. Cardiocondyla obscurior; Fig. 109: head in dorsal view; Fig. 110: lateral view; Fig. 111: dorsal view; Fig. 112: head surface between inner eye margin and paramedian vertex; Fig. 113: frontolateral aspect of waist segments. Galapagos: Santa Cruz, 2012.11.19