Liometopum microcephalum

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Liometopum microcephalum
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Dolichoderinae
Genus: Liometopum
Species: L. microcephalum
Binomial name
Liometopum microcephalum
(Panzer, 1798)

Liometopum microcephalum casent0249747 p 1 high.jpg

Liometopum microcephalum casent0249747 d 1 high.jpg

Specimen Labels

Synonyms

Liometopum microcephalum is a rare arboricolous ant, which forms large colonies of high ecological importance and ranks at the top position in the hierarchy of ant assemblages. Many aspects of the species' biology remain unknown due to its scattered occurrence and difficult nest accessibility. It is uncommon in Greece, being recorded from mainland Greece, Aegean Islands and Ionian Islands. In Achaia, a large column of thousands of workers was observed on the ground and in trees inside high-growing oak forest (Borowiec & Salata, 2021).

Identification

Distribution

This is moderately common species, recorded from the Aegean Islands, Epirus, the ionian Islands, Macedonia, Peloponnese, Sterea Ellas, Thessaly and Thrace (Borowiec et al., 2022).

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: 49.933334° to 33.22143333°.

   
North
Temperate
North
Subtropical
Tropical South
Subtropical
South
Temperate

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Palaearctic Region: Albania, Austria (type locality), Balearic Islands, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Iran, Israel, Italy, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Türkiye.

Distribution based on AntMaps

AntMapLegend.png

Distribution based on AntWeb specimens

Check data from AntWeb

Countries Occupied

Number of countries occupied by this species based on AntWiki Regional Taxon Lists. In general, fewer countries occupied indicates a narrower range, while more countries indicates a more widespread species.
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Estimated Abundance

Relative abundance based on number of AntMaps records per species (this species within the purple bar). Fewer records (to the left) indicates a less abundant/encountered species while more records (to the right) indicates more abundant/encountered species.
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Biology

Flight Period

X X
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Source: antkeeping.info.

Association with Other Organisms

Explore-icon.png Explore: Show all Associate data or Search these data. See also a list of all data tables or learn how data is managed.

Pekar (2020) studied the ant-like spider Micaria sociabilis in the Czech Republic. This spider occurred exclusively on tree trunks where L. microcephalum workers occurred. The abundance of M. sociabilis increased positively with the abundance of L. microcephalum. Experiments using an olfactometer and Y-maze with volatile and contact cues obtained from the two most abundant ant species in the area, L. microcephalum and Lasius fuliginosus, were performed to find whether Micaria preferred any cue. Micaria sociabilis did not respond to volatile cues obtained from the gaster of the two ant species. In contrast, it avoided contact cues from L. fuliginosus and was attracted to contact cues from L. microcephalum ants and its gaster extract in hexane. The results thus show that M. sociabilis associates exclusively with L. microcephalum and is attracted to contact cues from this ant while avoiding cues from the competing ant. This study reveals that Batesian mimics may use kairomones to associate with visual models.

Castes

Worker

Images from AntWeb

Liometopum microcephalum casent0906112 h 1 high.jpgLiometopum microcephalum casent0906112 p 1 high.jpgLiometopum microcephalum casent0906112 d 1 high.jpgLiometopum microcephalum casent0906112 l 1 high.jpg
Worker. Specimen code casent0906112. Photographer Estella Ortega, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences. Owned by CAS, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Liometopum microcephalum casent0906113 h 1 high.jpgLiometopum microcephalum casent0906113 p 1 high.jpgLiometopum microcephalum casent0906113 d 1 high.jpgLiometopum microcephalum casent0906113 l 1 high.jpg
Worker (major/soldier). Specimen code casent0906113. Photographer Estella Ortega, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences. Owned by CAS, San Francisco, CA, USA.

Nomenclature

The following information is derived from Barry Bolton's Online Catalogue of the Ants of the World.

  • microcephalum. Formica microcephala Panzer, 1798: no. 1652 (m.) AUSTRIA. Mayr, 1861: 39 (w.q.). Combination in Liometopum: Mayr, 1861: 39. Senior synonym of austriaca: Mayr, 1861: 39. See also: Baroni Urbani, 1971c: 158; Atanassov & Dlussky, 1992: 189; Shattuck, 1994: 129; Del Toro, et al. 2009: 325.
  • austriaca. Formica austriaca Mayr, 1853a: 144 (w.) AUSTRIA. Junior synonym of microcephalum: Mayr, 1861: 39.

Description

References

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

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