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14.000 Arten!

Benni hat geschrieben:"A revision of the Afrotropical species of the Dorylinae ant genus Aenictus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) based on the worker caste"
Kiko Gómez

http://www.srbe-kbve.be/cm/belgian-journal-entomology-2022 (http://www.srbe-kbve.be/cm/sites/default/files/publications/BJE/BJE%202022/BJE%20_124_1-86_Gomez_2022.pdf)

Mit der Beschreibung mehrerer neuer Aenictus spp. listet antcat https://www.antcat.org/catalog/429011?include_full_statistics=true nun offiziell 14.002 valide Arten. Der letzte Meilenstein (13.000) wurde etwa 2014 erreicht, die 13.500 Arten vor ziemlich genau drei Jahren. Die Zahl ist, aufgrund von vielen taxonomischen Unklarheiten in verschiedenen Gattungen, wohl aber auch nicht viel mehr als nur eine Zahl (- wenn auch von symbolträchtigem Charakter!).

In den letzten Jahren kamen auch in der myrmekologischen Taxonomie immer diversere taxonomische Ansätze zur Artbeschreibung zum Einsatz. Von sehr aufwendigen, modernen und integrativen Arbeiten, über rein phylogenetische Ansätze, (NU-)MOBAT und UCE, bis hin zu nur auf Basis morphologischer Varietäten einzelner Arbeiterinnen beruhende Beschreibungen, war alles dabei.

Ich bin gespannt, was uns in den nächsten Jahren erwartet!

With AntWiki or AntWeb, you come way over 15.000 species.......

But only when also including supspecies and fossil species I think...

AntWiki.gives only the species and separate the fossils....

Yes, but with this option it (at least for me) only shows 14.134 species, not over 15.000. And that is though AntWiki also includes incertae sedis and other unidentifiable taxa.

Valid Genera Fossil Genera Invalid Genera Valid Species Fossil Species Invalid Species
406 164 463 15930 804 5284

So, valid species 15930, alongside them 804 fossil species and 5284 invalid species.

15930 species as valid species, not counting the fossil or invalid species!

Index: 16 januari 2022.

There are basically four Antwiki categrories we have to look at:

1. Extant Species/Subspecies category (valid names + excluding fossils but including supspecies) = 15,940 (February 6th 2022)

2. Species category (valid names + excluding subspecies but including fossil species) = 14,938 (February 6th 2022)

3. Fossil species category (valid names + excluding supspecies [because there are no fossil ant subspecies]) = 864 (February 6th 2022)

4. Supspecies category (valid names + excluding fossils [again because there are no fossil ant supspecies]) = 1,805 (February 6th 2022)


So to calculate the exact number of valid and extant species, we can now either subtract the supspecies category (4.) from the species/supspecies category (1.), which would make 14,135 valid and extant species (15,940-1,805), or subtract the fossil species category (3.) from the species category (2.), which would make 14,074 valid and extant species (14,938-864). In theory, both numbers should be the same but antwiki isn't completely up to date and for example some some taxa listed in the supspecies category are now species. Another factor contributing to the difference is that some species have (accidently?) only been added to the extant species/subspecies category (1.) and not to the species category (2.).

Still, both numbers are over 14,000. This is because in both, the extant species/subspecies category (1.) and the species category (2.), there are some species (e.g. Hypoponera lea (Santschi, 1937)), which are categorized as incertae sedis or species inquirenda, but are still listed in the extant species/subspecies category (1.) and the species category (2.) on antwiki, where as antcat lists them seperated.


However, as already stated at the beginning, the whole discussion about the actual number is actually quite irrelevant, since the number is very dynamic and, as basically always in taxonomy, doesn't reflect natural reality. :)