©Slovenian Entomological Society, download unter www.biologiezentrum.at
LJUBLJANA, DECEMBER 2003 Vol. 11, No. 2: 159-162
THE TEMPORARY SOCIAL PARASITE LASIUS BICORNIS (FORSTER, 1850) NEW TO SLOVENIA, AND MYRMICA BESSARABICA NASSONOV, 1889 CORRECTED INTO M SPECIOIDES BONDROIT, 1918 (HYMENOPTERA: FORMICEDAE)
Birgit C. SCHLICK-STEINER1, Florian M. STEINER1, Gregor BRAČKO2, Wolfgang PAILL3 and Bernhard SEIFERT4
1 Institute of Zoology, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Gregor-Mendel-Str. 33, A-1180 Wien, Austria, e-mail: h9304696@edvl.boku.ac.at 2 Biotechnical Faculty, Department of Biology, Večna pot 111, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia, e-mail: gregor.bracko@uni-lj.si
3	Ökoteam - Institut für Faunistik und Tierökologie, Bergmanngasse 22, A - 8010
Graz, Austria, e-mail: oekoteam@sime.com
4	Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Görlitz, Postfach 30 Ol 54, D-02806 Görlitz,
Germany, e-mail: bernhard.seifert@smng.smwk.sachsen.de
Abstract - The Western Palaearctic ant Lasius (Chthonolasius) bicornis (Förster, 1850) is reported for Slovenia for the first time. The temporary social parasite is very rare species throughout its distribution range. The presented record originates from a decidous forest aside a small brook, which sporadically inundates the site. This type of habitat was so far unknown to be inhabited by L. bicornis. Due to recent tax-onomic changes, Myrmica bessarabica Nassonov, 1889, listed for Slovenia by Bračko (2000) must be substituted by M. specioides Bondroit, 1918.
Key words: ants, faunistics, Lasius bicornis, Myrmica specioides, Slovenia.
Izvleček - ZAČASNI SOCIALNI PARAZIT LASIUS BICORNIS (FÖRSTER, 1850), NOVA VRSTA ZA SLOVENIJO, IN MYRMICA BESSARABICA NASSONOV, 1889, POPRAVLJENA V M. SPECIOIDES BONDROIT, 1918 (HYMENOPTERA: FORMICIDAE)
Zahodnopalearktična mravlja vrste Lasius (Chthonolasius) bicornis (Förster, 1850) je bila prvič najdena v Sloveniji. Ta začasno socialno parazitska vrsta je precej redka na celotnem območju njene razširjenosti. Najdena je bila v listnatem gozdu
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blizu majhnega potoka, ki občasno poplavlja okolico. Do sedaj še ni bilo znano, da bi vrsta L. bicornis prebivala v takem habitatu. Zaradi novejših taksonomskih sprememb je potrebno vrsto Myrmica bessarabica Nassonov, 1889, ki je navedena v seznamu za Slovenijo (Bračko 2000), zamenjati z M. specioides Bondroit, 1918.
KLJUČNE BESEDE: mravlje, favnistika, Lasius bicornis, Myrmica specioides, Slovenija.
The twelve European species of the subgenus Chthonolasius are temporary social parasites. Hosts are species of the subgenus Lasius s.str. (Seifert 1988a) and presumably species of Cautolasius (Schlick-Steiner et al. 2002). Like social parasites in general, Chthonolasius species have much lower densities than their hosts (Buschinger 1971). Their hypogaeic life habit (Seifert 1996) makes them difficult to be found. Furtheron, the determination of some of the species remains one of the most difficult tasks within European ants. These aspects result in a general scarceness of data on faunistics, ecology and biology (Seifert & Buschinger 2001).
From 5 June to 12 July 2001, pitfall traps were exposed in a Quercus petraea-Carpinus betulus forest aside the small, strongly meandering brook Virje at Dobrava, NE of Brežice (Slovenia, 45°56'N/15°40'E, 160 m a.s.l.). The crown closure was high, the herbaceous layer was weak with little patches of direct light reaching the ground. The soil was sandy, with local patches of clay. Rotten wood was present, but its density was low. The water regime was highly dynamic during the trapping period: A strong inundation flooded the pitfall traps in early June, but already at the end of June the brook was completely drained and the stand had a dry-warm appearance.
The catches contained a single worker of Lasius (Chthonolasius) bicornis (Förster, 1850). Cooccurring ant species were Myrmica rubra (Linnaeus, 1758), M. specioides Bondroit, 1918, Leptothorax crassispinus Karawajew, 1926, Myrmecina graminicola (Latreille, 1802), Stenamma debile (Förster, 1850), Lasius platythorax Seifert, 1991, Formica gagates Latreille, 1798 and F. fusca Linnaeus, 1758. In Bračko (2000) Myrmica specioides had been referred to as Myrmica bessarabica Nassonov, 1889, which was recently classified as „Myrmica incertae sedis" (Seifert 2002); the characters of M. specioides according to Seifert (1988b) and Seifert (1996), do however apply to all records of "M bessarabica" in Bračko (2000).
Lasius bicornis has a Western Palaearctic distribution (Seifert 1988a), but is a very rare and only locally occurring species throughout its range (Seifert 1996). The species nests in rotten logs of dead and living trees (Seifert 1988a), and occasionally in the ground (Mei 1984, Seifert 1988a). Little is known about the feeding habits of L. bicornis, but once the lachnid Schizodryobius pallipes Hartig, obviously a tro-phobiotic partner, was found inside a nest (Mei 1984). No direct observation of a host use by L. bicornis has been accomplished by now, but Lasius brunneus (Latreille, 1798) is the most probable host (Seifert, unpublished data). Determination of all castes, as an exception within Chthonolasius, is comparatively easy and unequivocal (Seifert 1988a). From an ecological point of view this record of L.
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bicornis is interesting, as the species has so far not been found in a sporadically indundated habitat. In faunistic respect the record is not surprising as L. bicornis occurs in the countries neighbouring Slovenia, for which recent faunistic data are available, i.e. Italy (Poldi et al. 1995), Hungary (Gallé et al. 1998) and Austria (Steiner et al. 2003).
Acknowledgements
Our thanks go to the Center za kartografijo favne in flore (Miklavž na Dravskem polju), especially to M. Kotarac, for partly funding the trapping-programme; to M. Stachowitsch for linguistic improvements.
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Received/Prejeto: 28. 8. 2003
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