Anergates atratulus (Schenck, 1852)

Lapeva-Gjonova, Albena, Csősz, Sándor & Mifsud, David, 2024, Further records of social parasitic ants in Europe and review of the Bulgarian species, Biodiversity Data Journal 12, pp. e 123575-e 123575 : e123575-

Anergates atratulus (Schenck, 1852)

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: BFUS-I-AG 001990 ; occurrenceRemarks: found together with the host workers, males and queens of Tetramorium semilaeve André, 1883 ; recordedBy: A. Lapeva-Gjonova; individualCount: 1; sex: female; reproductiveCondition: physiogastric; preparations: EtOH; occurrenceID: 6A8EC018-7368-5DA5-BD91-338261A9811D; Taxon: scientificName: Anergates atratulus (Schenck, 1852) ; order: Hymenoptera ; family: Formicidae ; taxonRank: species; Location: island: Gozo; country: Malta; locality: Ramla Bay ; minimumElevationInMeters: 15; locationRemarks: under stone; decimalLatitude: 36.0601; decimalLongitude: 14.2834; Event: eventDate: 06-06 - 2019; habitat: littoral; Record Level: collectionID: BFUS; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: BFUS-I-AG 001992 ; occurrenceRemarks: found together with the host workers of Tetramorium immigrans Santschi, 1927 ; recordedBy: A. Lapeva-Gjonova; individualCount: 11; sex: 10 queens, 1 male; preparations: EtOH; occurrenceID: 88345A4A-2981-5BCC-B0BB-9C3DE3843FB5; Taxon: scientificName: Anergates atratulus (Schenck, 1852) ; order: Hymenoptera ; family: Formicidae ; taxonRank: species; Location: country: Bulgaria; county: Burgas; municipality: Malko Tarnovo; locality: near Kalovo vill. ; minimumElevationInMeters: 387; locationRemarks: under stone; decimalLatitude: 42.14638; decimalLongitude: 27.54572; Event: eventDate: 06-06 - 2021; habitat: along a road in an oak forest; Record Level: collectionID: BFUS; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Notes

This is the first record for Malta and is likely the southernmost distribution point of this workless inquiline species in Europe. Anergates atratulus has a native range that covers the western Palaearctic, where it uses several ant hosts, usually from the Tetramorium caespitum species complex, but also from the T. ferox and T. chefketi complexes ( Sanetra et al. 1999, Lapeva-Gjonova et al. 2012, Wagner et al. 2017, Seifert 2018, Purkart et al. 2022). In Malta, the host of Anergates atratulus appears to be Tetramorium semilaeve , which has recently been reported for the first time as a new host of this social parasite in Sardinia ( Schifani et al. 2021 b). This rare workless inquiline was found in a littoral zone of Gozo Island as a physiogastric queen and pupae under a stone together with workers and numerous males and alate queens of the ant host (Figs 1, 2). A similar unusual finding of A. atratulus together with workers and pupae of the host species ( T. diomedeum Emery, 1908 ) was also reported by Sanetra et al. (1999) in Sicily (Siracusa distr.) at about 300 m a. s. l. in mid-May. As Tetramorium semilaeve is a typical western Mediterranean species ( Borowiec et al. 2015), A. atratulus probably occurs naturally on the Island of Gozo. The late record of this species in the Maltese Islands is explained by its rarity, highly anthropogenised habitats and the increasing threat of invasive ant species.

In the same nest of T. semilaeve with A. atratulus , apterous flat morphs of Paracletus cimiciformis von Heyden, 1837 ( Hemiptera , Aphididae ) were found. It is an aphid with a complex cycle on Pistacia (primary host) and grass roots (secondary host) in ant nests, mostly of Tetramorium , where they also prey on ants, sucking out the haemolymph of the ant brood with their stylets ( Salazar et al. 2015).

In Bulgaria, it was reported from several regions without precise collecting localities ( Atanassov and Dlusskij 1992) – Western Stara Planina Mts, Vitosha Mt., Osogovo Mt., Rhodopes Mts, Black Sea coast as well as from two exact sites in Konyavska Mt. and Eastern Rhodopes ( Lapeva-Gjonova et al. 2012). The current finding is from Strandzha Mt. (south-eastern Bulgaria) in the nest of T. immigrans , which is the first record of this host for A. atratulus in Bulgaria.