First record of Colobopsis truncata (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from Moldova region of Romania

Abstract

Colobopsis truncata is a common Mediterranean species distributed mostly in southern and central Europe. In Romania, the species is expected to be widely distributed, but data are scarce. Both minor workers and soldiers of the species were collected in different sites during field observations in the spring of 2020. Herein we report the first record of Colobopsis truncata from Moldova and new records for southern Romania.

Is mimicry a diversification-driver in ants? Biogeography, ecology, ethology, genetics and morphology define a second West-PalaearcticColobopsisspecies (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

“…We also retrieved a worker labelled Co. fuscipes in Mayr's collection at the Natural History Museum of Vienna, but with no explicit indication ensuring its type status. In order to gather information on chromatic variation of Euro-Mediterranean Colobopsis, we relied on AntWeb pictures, images from scientific papers or monographs (Glaser, 2009;Wagner, 2014;Lebas et al, 2016;Seifert, 2018;Scupola, 2018;García, 2020;Salata et al, 2020;Tăușan et al 2020), and on georeferenced photographs uploaded on citizen science platforms (iNaturalist.org, biodiversidadvirtual.org) and on biodiversity-related Facebook groups. A complete list of the material examined, their depositories and collecting data is available as a Supplementary Material file to this paper.…”

“…All the rest is assigned to the DQL pattern, that is samples from Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italian peninsula (Apulia, Campania, Emilia-Romagna, Liguria, Tuscany), Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland, the rest of Spain (Aragon, Catalonia, Balearic Islands, Castilla-La Mancha), and Turkey. In addition, photographs of Co. truncata specimens present in the European ant fauna guides byLebas et al (2016) and Seifert (2018), regional faunistic guides byGlaser (2009) (Liechtenstein), Wagner (2014) (Austria's Carinthia), Scupola (2018) (Italy's Veneto) as well as in the Crete's ant fauna monograph bySalata et al (2020) and in the papers by Wagner (2019) (Austria), García (2020) (Spain) andTăușan et al (2020) (Romania) all show the DQL pattern.…”