Key to Plagiolepis of Greece

This key to workers is from Borowiec and Salata 2022. Each terminal couplet is followed by comparative remarks and other notes specific to the Greek ant fauna.

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1

Social parasites. worker caste absent . . . . . #2

Nont parasitic species, worker caste present . . . . . #3

2

return to couplet #1

Gynes wingless, very small, only slightly larger than workers of the host species . . . . . Plagiolepis xene

A social parasite that is known only from sexual forms, it is presumed to have no worker caste. In Greece, this is the only known described parasitic species of the genus Plagiolepis as the status of P. sp. brachypterous has not been resolved. However, Deguldre et al. (2020), based on molecular study, supports this form as being an undescribed Greek (Samos Island) parasitic Plagiolepis species. This unnamed species can be recognized and differentiated from P. xene by:

Brachypteric gynes distinctly larger than the host workers but distinctly smaller than gynes of the host species . . . . . Plagiolepis sp. brachypterous

All alate gynes of this unnamed species were collected in nests of Plagiolepis pallescens. It cannot be ruled out that this brachypteric form arose as a result of parasitization of gynes of P. pallescens. However, the gasters of the brachyperous gynes did not show any nematode or microsporidia infection.

3

return to couplet #1

Fourth funiculus segment only slightly longer than the third segment, and the third segment distinctly longer than the second segment . . . . . #4

Fourth funiculus segment distinctly longer than the second and third segment, and the third segment as long as to only slightly longer than the second segment . . . . . Plagiolepis pygmaea

4

return to couplet #3

Gaster with dense appressed pubescence, the distance between hair shorter than 1/3 of their length . . . . . Plagiolepis perperamus

Gaster with sparse appressed pubescence, the distance between hair even or longer than half of their length . . . . . Plagiolepis pallescens

References

Borowiec, L., Salata, S. 2022. A monographic review of ants of Greece (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Vol. 1. Introduction and review of all subfamilies except the subfamily Myrmicinae. Part 1: text. Natural History Monographs of the Upper Silesian Museum 1: 1-297.