Strongylognathus italicus Finzi, 1924

Lapeva-Gjonova, Albena & Radchenko, Alexander G., 2021, Ant genus Strongylognathus (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in Bulgaria: a preliminary review, Biodiversity Data Journal 9, pp. 65742-65742 : 65742

Strongylognathus italicus Finzi, 1924

Strongylognathus huberi subsp. italica Finzi, 1924a: 14, q, Italy (Ils. Elba); Baroni Urbani 1971: 149.

Strongylognathus italicus : Bolton 1976: 308; Sanetra et al. 1999: 348; Borowiec 2014: 164.

Strongylognathus italicus Strongylognathus alboini Finzi 1924b Seifert 2018

Strongylognathus huberi subsp. italica Finzi, 1924a: 14, q, Italy (Ils. Elba); Baroni Urbani 1971: 149.

Strongylognathus italicus : Bolton 1976: 308; Sanetra et al. 1999: 348; Borowiec 2014: 164.

Strongylognathus alboini As senior synonym of Strongylognathus alboini Finzi 1924b: 121, w, Slovenia: Seifert 2018: 239.

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: A. Lapeva-Gjonova; individualCount: 25; sex: workers; Taxon: scientificName: Strongylognathus italicus; order: Hymenoptera ; family: Formicidae ; genus: Strongylognathus ; taxonRank: Species ; Location : country: Bulgaria; stateProvince: Haskovo; municipality: Ivaylovgrad ; locality: Eastern Rhodopes , near Chernichino vill. ; minimumElevationInMeters: 657; locationRemarks: xerothermic grassland, in a nest of Tetramorium chefketi Forel , 1911; decimalLatitude: 41.5897; decimalLongitude: 25.8488; Event : eventDate: 07-04-2013; Record Level: collectionCode: BFUS; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Description

SEM images: Fig. 6

Conservation

Vulnerable D2 ver. 2.3 ( IUCN 2021)

Taxon discussion

Finzi (1924a) described S. italicus , based on a single queen from the Island of Elba and then Sanetra et al. (1999) recorded it from the same Island and from Italian mainland (Florence Province), but unfortunately, they did not indicate whether workers of this species were found.

In the same year, Finzi (1924b) described S. alboini , based on workers from Mt. Nanos (now Slovenia) and later, Baroni Urbani (1969) re-described its workers and described queens and males, based on the material collected by Kutter in southern Switzerland (Roveredo, Canton Cicino). Recently, Seifert (2018) compared morphometrically and subjectively the holotype queen of S. italicus with the queens of S. alboinii from Roveredo and concluded that they belong to the same species; in addition, workers of S. italicus from Roveredo are identical to syntype workers of S. alboini from Mt. Nanos. Consequently, he considered S. alboinii as junior synonym of S. italicus .

Strongylognathus italicus differs from other Bulgarian species of the Strongylognathus huberi -group by the coarser sculpture on the head dorsum and somewhat longer antennal scape. In Bulgaria, it was found only once on a southern slope of xerothermic grassland situated in an oak forest (Fig. 1 c) at an altitude of ca. 650 m in a nest of Tetramorium chefketi . It is interesting to note that, in the same site, we found S. karawajewi and the very rare social parasite of Tetramorium - Teleutomyrmex buschingeri Lapeva-Gjonova, 2017.

Figures

Figure 1. Photos of some collection sites: a - Thracian plain, Besaparski hills, near Ognyanovo vill. (habitat of Strongylognathus karawajewi); b - Stara planina, near Karnare vill. (habitat of S. karawajewi); c - Eastern Rhodopes, near Chernichino vill. (habitat of S. karawajewi and S. italicus); d - Eastern Rhodopes, near Gaberovo vill. (habitat of S. karawajewi and S. afer).

Figure 6. Strongylognathus italicus Finzi, 1924, workers: a - head, dorsal view; b - body, lateral view.