Cataglyphis hannae Agosti 1994, n. sp.
Creators: name: Agosti, D.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 1993
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Formicidae
Cataglyphis
Cataglyphis hannae

description: <i> <i>Cataglyphis</i> hannae</i> n. sp. <i>Material examined</i> Holotype: &lt;?, HL 1-40, HW 1-20, EL 0-50, SL 218, AL 2-63, CI 86, SI 181, El 41-7, FI 35-4, LI 100-8, TAI 114-3. <i>Diagnosis of male</i> Ant of the <i>Cataglyphis bicolor</i> species group (Agosti, 1990), with the following diagnostic features: (1) Black head and alitrunk. (2) Alitrunk length 2-63 mm. (3) Subgenital plate distally trilobed with the median process triangular and not digitiform. (4) In ventral view, median process with hair-carrying pits to the tip. (5) In lateral view, apicolateral appendix of sagitta not overreaching outline of apical, serrated plate. (6) Apicolateral appendix of sagitta short and terminally rounded; in ventral view only slightly raised above the plane of the apical, serrated plate. (7) Long hind tibiae (TAI 114-3). <i>Paratype</i>: &amp;male; &amp;male; HL 1-30-1-43, HW 1-05-1-19, EL 0-44-0-50, SL 1-98-2-23, AL 2-48-2-73, CI 80-8-86-6, SI 175-5-195-6, El 41-1-43-0, FI 91-4-103-2, LI 101-7-105-5, TAI 108-3-116-0 (<i>n</i> = 8). There is a slight variation in size, but the extremes of the range of absolute measurements are always far below those of the other males of the <i>bicolor</i> species group. Compared with all the other males of the <i>bicolor</i> group, <i>hannae</i> has the longest hind tibiae (TAI&gt; 108). Head and alitrunk always black in colour. <i>Diagnosis offemale</i> Ant of the <i>Cataglyphis bicolor</i> species group with the following diagnostic features (Fig. 1B): (1) Small size, alitrunk &lt;3-2 mm. (2) Scape much longer than head length (SI&gt; 120). (3) Long hind tibiae (TAI&gt; 90). (4) Head and alitrunk bright red. (5) First funicular segment of intermediate length (28 &lt;FI &lt;35). (6) Low rounded petiole in lateral view. Paratypes: &amp;female; &amp;female; HL 1-75-1-88, HW 1-65-1 -73, EL 0-48-0-50, SL 2-00-2-18, AL 2.95-3.13, CI 90-4—94-3, SI 121-2-129-9, FI 29-0-31-1, El 28-4-29-0, LI 101-8-107-1, TAI 93-5-100-8 (<i>n</i> = 5). <i>Deposition of type material</i> Holotype: &amp;male;, <b>Tunisia,</b> El Guettar, 34.33°N, 8.92°E, 300 m; in Oasis, at the edge of irrigated fields under <i>Eucalyptus</i> trees, D. Agosti, 0 8.06.1992, sample F92039, in nest with <i>Cataglyphis bicolor</i> (MHNG). Paratypes: 5 &amp;female; &amp;female;, (alates) and 14 &amp;male; <i>&amp;male;</i>, same as holotype. 7 males, Tunisia, El Guettar, 34.33°N, 8.92°E, 300 m; in Oasis, at the edge of an irrigated lucerne field, D. Agosti, 0 8.06.1992, sample F92309, in nest with <i>Cataglyphis bicolor</i> (BMNH, CDA, CRW, MCZ, MHNG). <i>C. hannae</i> can be separated from all the other known species in the <i>bicolor</i> group by the above mentioned diagnostic characters, especially by the body size, the long antennal scape and hind tibiae, the low rounded petiole, and the male genitalia. <i>C. abyssiniens,</i> the only species with small females, has a much shorter scape (SI &lt;113), and shorter hind tibiae (TAI &lt;85); no males of this species are known. The long black hairs on the occiput of the head as seen in <i>bicolor</i> are not present in <i>hannae,</i> and thus exclude the possibility of <i>hannae</i> being a microgyne of <i>bicolor.</i> Although&gt; 1500 different samples of species of the <i>bicolor</i> complex are in our collections, and most of them from Tunisia, no further <i>hannae</i> specimens have been collected before. The host of <i>hannae</i> is distributed along the southern foothills of the Atlas mountains in the transitional zone from the Mediterranean to the Desert region, not reaching the Atlantic in the West and not extending into Libya (Agosti <i>et al.,</i> in preparation). Thus, <i>hannae</i> might be more common, certainly if one considers that the southern extension of the Mediterranean vegetation during the Pleistocene reached as far south as the Saharan mountains Tassili and Hoggar (Quezel, 1965). But social parasitic ants tend to have a clumped distribution (Buschinger, 1985) and the restricted collecting area might truly reflect its distribution. Finally, these males and females were collected as alates, during a survey where&gt; 200 nests were at least partially dug up. The habitat was at the edge of an irrigated <i>Medicago sativa</i> field and on a sandy place in the shade of some tall <i>Eucalyptus</i> trees on the side of a track within the oasis. In this desert region, the occurrence of species of the <i>bicolor</i> group is restricted to oases. The position of <i>hannae</i> within the <i>bicolor</i> species group is established by the male genitalia and the funicular index of the female. More problematic, and challenging, is the sister group relationship within the <i>bicolor</i> group. A phylogenetic analysis using morphological characters of <i>nodus</i> (outgroup), <i>abyssinicus, bicolor, savignyi, viaticus</i> (Table 1) and the explicit enumeration procedure from the computer program Hennig86 (Farris, 1988), resulted in 3 most parsimonious trees. Subsequent successive weighting established 2 most parsimonious trees (Fig. 2). Both these trees share the sister group <i>hannae + abyssinicus,</i> and support a sister group <i>viaticus + (hannae + abyssinicus).</i> The sister group relationship of <i>hannae + abyssinicus</i> is so far only supported by female characters, as the males of <i>abyssinicus</i> are unknown. However, the long antennal scape and the small size of the females of <i>abyssinicus,</i> which is the same as in <i>hannae</i> and unique in species of the <i>bicolor</i> species group, indicate an inquiline life style for this species too. A more detailed discussion will be provided by Agosti (in preparation). As all the results are based on morphological characters, it would be interesting to test them using other characters such as DNA sequences, electrophoretic data or the chemical composition of glandular compounds, all of which have already showed their specificity at the species level (Keegans <i>et</i> al., 1992; Agosti <i>et al.,</i> in preparation).
description: Published as part of <i>Agosti, D., 1994, A new inquiline ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Cataglyphis and its phylogenetic relationship, pp. 913-919 in Journal of Natural History 28</i> on pages 914-918, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.2949937
description: {"references": ["Agosti, D., 1990, Review and reclassification of Cataglyphis (Hymenoptera, Formicidae), Journal of Natural History, 24, 1457 - 1505.", "Quezel, P., 1965, La vegetation du Sahara, du Tchad a la Mauritanie (Stuttgart: Gustav Fischer), 333 pp.", "Buschinger, A., 1985, New records of rare parasitic ants (Hym., Form.) in the French Alps, Insectes Sociaux, 32, 321 - 324.", "Farris, S., 1988, Hennig 86 version 1.5 manual, Software and MSDOS program.", "Keegans, S. J., Morgan, E. D., Agosti, D. and Wehner, R., 1992, What do glands tell us about species? A chemical case study of Cataglyphis ants, Biochemical Systematics and Ecology, 20, 559 - 572."]}