The extreme, workerless inquilines.

[Teleutotje]

“Salata, S., van Delft, J. P. L., van Delft, J. J. C. W., Georgiadis, C., Borowiec, L., 2023.”, for Teleutom…, no, Tetramorium albenae.

“Biology. The type locality is situated at the border between the mountainous north and the hilly south of Pelion. The collecting site, situated at 57 m a.s.l., is a slightly south-southwest facing slope situated approximately 50 m northwest from a small river (Miotiko) that flows through a narrow strip of Platanus-forest with many massive trees. The nest was situated under a flat, fairly round stone with a diameter of approximately 30 cm. The stone lied 1 m from a low dry stone wall in an old and rocky olive grove. This part of the olive grove was lightly grazed by horses. The undergrowth consisted of a slightly ruderal, herb- and flower-rich grassland. Within some 5 m around the nest, olives, Quercus coccifera and many herbaceous plants were growing. Among them: Trifolium spp., Lotus sp., Bellis sp., Malva sp., yellow Asteraceae sp., white small Allium sp., Origanum vulgare, Geranium spp., Medicago sp., Vicia sp., Anagallis arvensis, Onobrychis sp., Urtica dioica, Plantago lanceolata, Sonchus sp., Orlaya sp., Catapodium sp., Rubus sp. and Verbascum sp.”

“Immediately after turning the stone, the host gyne with the inquiline gyne attached on her gaster were spotted among numerous workers of the host species. Both specimens, along with numerous workers and brood, were collected with an insect aspirator and taken for observation in captivity. The nest was infested with mites that were also collected. In captivity, the inquiline was riding upon the queen of the host colony, regularly laying eggs and almost constantly tapping with her antennae on the thorax and legs of the host. All eggs of the parasite were collected and taken care of by workers. Later, the majority of its pupae died soon after they started moving. Subsequently, the inquilines that managed to develop into mature specimens were deformed and died shortly after they hatched."

[Teleutotje]

Salata, S., Borowiec, L., 2017, you can find here:

https://antcat.org/documents/6725/salat ... alkans.pdf

[Teleutotje]

An other view of The extreme, workerless inquilines A37:

[Teleutotje]

From time to time I write to Radchenko (I had before contact with him about a book.) via different emailadresses about Dlussky's find of Teleutomyrmex in Turkmenistan (new species?). All those time no answer!

Then, a little while ago, I found another emailadress. I wrote this:

"Dear Sir,

Maybe you can help me.

Dlussky et al. described the catch of Teleutomyrmex schneideri in Turkmenistan. Now it seems that this is an other species. Can you look at it and, eventually, describe the species? It would be very helpfull.

Thanks,

Yours,

Van der Stappen Marc.

Dlussky, G. M.; Soyunov, O. S.; Zabelin, S. I. 1990. Ants of Turkmenistan. [In Russian.]. Ashkabad: Ylym Press, 273 pp. https://antcat.org/references/124151 "

And yesterday I got an answer:

"Dear Mr. Van der Stappen,

surely, I know about old record of T. schneideri from Turkmenistan, and, as I remember, many years ago Prof. Dlussky also told me that it can be a new species.

Unfortunately, I cannot help you, since I live in Kiev, in Ukraine, but this material is preserved in Moscow, at Zoological Museum of Moscow University. Especially since Russia is waging war against Ukraine...

Yours,

Prof. Alexander Radchenko"

Stupid war!!!!

[Teleutotje]

About the host-queen(s):

Multi-queen breeding is associated with the origin of inquiline social parasitism in ants.
Romain A. Dahan & Christian Rabeling.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-17595-0

[Teleutotje]

In the file it stands as:

Queen-number(s) in the hosts.

Dahan and Rabeling, 2022, did research about the influence of the queen-number(s) in the host species on the evolution of inquiline species. Their research was, for the extreme, workerless inquilines, inconclusive. There were host species with monogynous - and/or with polygynous colonies.

And the reference is reformed as:

Dahan, R. A., Rabeling, C., 2022, “Multi-queen breeding is associated with the origin of inquiline social parasitism in ants.” Scientific Reports, vol. 12, article no. 14680, p. 1-10 (+ 3 supporting files.)

[Teleutotje]

My file has grown again a little bit, so in a few days a new file will be published here.....

[Teleutotje]

The first 7 files:

[Teleutotje]

The last 7 files:

[Teleutotje]

I also made a contents and index but the form must be made good to put it also here.....

[Teleutotje]

Here it is, have fun...

[Teleutotje]

Finally I found the missing reference, Adlerz, 1913:

Adlerz, G. A., 1913, “Myrornas liv.” or “[The Life of Ants.]” Stockholm, Ljus, 243 pp.

[Teleutotje]

Oh yes, where did I find it: From a Swedish Wikipedia-page about Adlerz to a biographic Swedish page in an obscure place where nobody looks at...

[Teleutotje]

Now, there are a few changes in my file but they will be published somewhere in the future but...

It is a shame that Ward et al. didn't get it through about the name Tetramorium/Strongylognathus and that there still exsist a T. kutteri Tinaut that did not yet change it's name (Not my fault!!!).

It was all going to be clear in no time, but 10 years is very long indeed. Shame!!!

[Teleutotje]

Here some pages from a book 85 years old...

[Teleutotje]

Two new additions to the literature of Teleutomyrmex, first a new one, with comments about how good some species are about the importance of mountains:

García, F.; Cuesta-Segura, A. D.; Espadaler, X. 2024. Myrmica babiensis sp. nov. (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), a new social parasite from the NW Iberian Peninsula. Annales Zoologici (Warsaw) 74 (1):113-127.

Text, pdf and key:

https://bioone.org/journals/annales-zoo ... 1.006.full

Pdf and key:

https://antcat.org/references/144316

And an oldy, not known by me before:

Tinaut, A. and F. Ruano. 1999. Parasitismo social. Boletín de la Sociedad Entomológica Aragonesa, 26: 727–740.

Pdf:

http://sea-entomologia.org/PDF/BOLETIN_ ... 51-727.pdf

[Teleutotje]

I know this reference already two years but only now included in the reference list for Teleutomyrmex:

Brandt, M., Foitzik, S., Fischer-Blass, B., Heinze, J., 2005, “The coevolutionary dynamics of obligate ant social parasite systems – between prudence and antagonism.” Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, vol. 80, no. 2, p. 251–267.

[Teleutotje]

A new host for Anergates:

Tetramorium semilaeve André, 1883

Refernces:

Schifani E, Nalini E, Gentile V, Alamanni F, Ancona C, Caria M, Cillo D, Bazzato E (2021b) 
Ants of Sardinia: an updated checklist based on new faunistic, morphological and biogeographical notes.
Redia, 104: 21‑35.
https://doi.org/10.19263/REDIA-104.21.03

Further records of social parasitic ants in Europe and review of the Bulgarian species.
Albena Lapeva-Gjonova, Sándor Csősz, David Mifsud.
https://bdj.pensoft.net/article/123575/

This second reference is included in the literaturelist of Teleutomyrmex. It contains more info about the Bulgarian inquiline species.

[Teleutotje]

Also included an original synonym of the new host of Anergates:

Tetramorium semilaeve André, 1883 = Tetramorium caespitum var. semilaeve André, 1883

And also included a few more pictures of Anergates and Teleutomyrmex....

[Teleutotje]

A Spanish site I found a while ago:

https://historiasnaturales.net/2023/10/ ... clavistas/