Messor orientalis

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Messor orientalis
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Myrmicinae
Tribe: Stenammini
Genus: Messor
Species: M. orientalis
Binomial name
Messor orientalis
(Emery, 1898)

Messor orientalis casent0281206 p 1 high.jpg

Messor orientalis casent0281206 d 1 high.jpg

Specimen Labels

In Cyprus, Salata et al. (2023) report that this is a thermophilous species, noted from low and mid altitudes, from seacoast to 1325 m. Prefers sunny, open areas like seashores, gravel riverbanks, pastures, grasslands and agricultural fields. But often also observed in less sunny habitats with phrygana, inside pine forests with bushes or in gorges. The species was also observed in cities and tourist resorts, in gardens, ruderal places, dirty parking lots, rural roads, and banana cultivations. Nests directly in the ground, workers penetrate moderate areas but they do not create well-trodden paths leading to the nest entrance.

Identification

Salata et al. (2023) - A member of the Messor structor species-group characterised by distinctly sculptured head and mesosoma (head completely or mostly with longitudinal striation, often arching posterolaterally in occipital area and forming semicircular sculpture above and behind eyes) (Steiner et al. 2018). The group comprises numerous taxa of various and often confusing taxonomic status. Recently, Steiner et al. (2018) published results of integrative studies performed on some members of the Messor structor species-group but the scope of this study did not cover taxa occurring in the Middle East and some areas of the eastern Mediterranean. Thus, M. orientalis was omitted in this revision.

Messor orientalis is similar to the largest species of the structor species-group: Messor mcarthuri, Messor ponticus and Messor varrialei. Messor ponticus distinctly differs from M. orientalis in reduced or absent sculpture on postocular area on the head of major workers while M. orientalis has postocular area in major worker striate. Messor ponticus is also separated geographically, its distribution is mostly limited to territories of Romania, Bulgaria, SW Ukraine, continental Greece and Aegean Türkiye. Messor mcarthuri differs from M. orientalis in less angulate propodeum in profile and lack of propodeal denticle, less sculptured postocular area with partly shiny interspaces between striation, shorter hairs on the ventral side of the head usually only slightly longer than the eye length, and shorter first segment of funicle only 1.2 × as long as segment 2. While M. orientalis has the propodeum distinctly angulate in profile, often with thick lateral carinae and small propodeal denticle, hairs on the ventral side of the head are longer, mostly distinctly longer than the eye length, and the first segment of the funicle is longer, 1.5–1.6 × as long as segment 2. Poorly studied M. variallei is the most similar due to similarly elongate first segment of funicle and the length of setae on the ventral surface of the head, but it differs from M. orientalis in less angulate propodeum and in the sculpture of the first gastral tergite forming an elongated pits at the base of each erect seta. Both M. mcarthuri and M. varrialei are distributed mostly westwards from known localities of M. orientalis, covering the area of the Aegean Region and Crete.

Keys including this Species

Distribution

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: 41.716667° to 31.989442°.

   
North
Temperate
North
Subtropical
Tropical South
Subtropical
South
Temperate
  • Salata et al. (2023), Fig. 23. Distribution of Messor species in Cyprus.

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Palaearctic Region: Afghanistan, China, Cyprus, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Israel, North Macedonia, Türkiye (type locality).

It occurs in the Middle East and South East Europe (Abdul-Rassoul et al. 2013).

Distribution based on AntMaps

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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

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.

This species is a mutualist for the aphid Chaitophorus israeliticus (a trophobiont) (Mortazavi et al., 2015; Saddiqui et al., 2019).

Castes

Images from AntWeb

Messor orientalis casent0281207 p 1 high.jpgMessor orientalis casent0281207 d 1 high.jpgMessor orientalis casent0281207 h 1 high.jpgMessor orientalis casent0281207 l 1 high.jpgMessor orientalis casent0281207 p 2 high.jpg
Queen (alate/dealate). Specimen code casent0281207. Photographer Estella Ortega, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences. Owned by CAS, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Messor orientalis casent0281208 d 1 high.jpgMessor orientalis casent0281208 p 1 high.jpgMessor orientalis casent0281208 h 1 high.jpgMessor orientalis casent0281208 l 1 high.jpg
Worker (major/soldier). Specimen code casent0281208. Photographer Estella Ortega, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences. Owned by CAS, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Messor orientalis casent0281591 h 1 high.jpgMessor orientalis casent0281591 d 1 high.jpgMessor orientalis casent0281591 p 1 high.jpgMessor orientalis casent0281591 l 1 high.jpg
Worker. Specimen code casent0281591. Photographer Shannon Hartman, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences. Owned by NHMUK, London, UK.
Messor orientalis casent0904132 h 1 high.jpgMessor orientalis casent0904132 p 1 high.jpgMessor orientalis casent0904132 d 1 high.jpgMessor orientalis casent0904132 l 1 high.jpg
Syntype of Stenamma structor orientalisWorker. Specimen code casent0904132. Photographer Will Ericson, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences. Owned by MSNG, Genoa, Italy.
  • Salata et al. (2023), Figs. 9–10. Major worker of Messor orientalis. (9) dorsal, (10) lateral (scale bar = 2 mm).
  • Salata et al. (2023), Figs. 11–12. Minor worker of Messor orientalis. (11) dorsal, (12) lateral (scale bar = 1 mm).
  • Salata et al. (2023), Figs. 13–14. Head of Messor orientalis. (13) major worker (scale bar = 2 mm), (14) minor worker (scale bar = 1 mm).

Nomenclature

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

  • orientalis. Stenamma (Messor) structor var. orientalis Emery, 1898c: 143 (w.q.m.) LEBANON, TURKEY, GEORGIA, UZBEKISTAN/TURKMENISTAN.
    • Type-material: syntype workers, syntype queens, syntype males (numbers not stated).
    • Type-localities: Lebanon: Sarepta (Christoph), Uzbekistan or Turkmenistan: Syr Darya (Stenroos), Turkey: Mersina (M. Holtz), Georgia: Tiflis (Christoph).
    • Type-depository: MSNG.
    • Combination in Messor: Ruzsky, 1903b: 315; Emery, 1908e: 456.
    • As unavailable (infrasubspecific) name: Emery, 1908e: 456; Forel, 1910a: 9; Karavaiev, 1910b: 67; Forel, 1911d: 347; Emery, 1912f: 96; Wheeler, W.M. & Mann, 1916: 170; Donisthorpe, 1918b: 166; Emery, 1921b: 212; Emery, 1921f: 73; Santschi, 1926f: 292; Menozzi, 1933b: 54; Santschi, 1934d: 275; Santschi, 1939c: 6.
    • Junior synonym of structor: Kuznetsov-Ugamsky, 1929d: 12.
    • Junior synonym of darianus: Pisarski, 1967: 383; Pisarski, 1969b: 306.
    • Subspecies of structor: Ruzsky, 1903b: 315; Menozzi, 1933b: 56 (in key); Zimmermann, 1935: 15; Aktaç, 1977: 120; Tohmé, G. & Tohmé, 2014: 134 (error).
    • Status as species: Collingwood, 1961a: 61; Tohmé, G. & Tohmé, H. 1981: 150; Collingwood, 1985: 251; Agosti & Collingwood, 1987a: 54; Agosti & Collingwood, 1987b: 271 (in key); Kugler, J. 1988: 257; Collingwood, 1993b: 194; Bolton, 1995b: 256; Collingwood & Heatwole, 2000: 7; Petrov, 2006: 92 (in key); Vonshak, et al. 2009: 42; Legakis, 2011: 11; Borowiec, L. & Salata, 2012: 515; Guénard & Dunn, 2012: 45; Kiran & Karaman, 2012: 20; Nezhad, et al. 2012: 70; Borowiec, L. 2014: 110; Lebas, et al. 2016: 298; Borowiec, L. & Salata, 2020: 11.
    • Distribution: Afghanistan, Georgia, Greece, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan.

Taxonomic Notes

Salata et al. (2023) - Messor orientalis was described based on workers collected from Sarepta (now Sarafand, Lebanon), Mersina (now Ýçel, capital city of Ýçel Province of southern Türkiye), Tiflis (now Tbilisi, Georgia), and Sir Daria (now Syr Darya valley, a river in Central Asia). Historically, the species was recorded also from Greece, Iran, Israel, Syria and Yemen but according to the recent revision of the Messor structor species-group (Steiner et al. 2018) and our studies on recently collected material, Greek records of M. orientalis refer to M. mcarthuri Steiner et al., 2018 (see Salata and Borowiec 2019). Based on the results provided in the above-mentioned revision, material from Iran, Central Asia and Yemen labelled as M. orientalis should be revised based on molecular and morphometric studies as it may consist of several taxa belonging to the M. structor species-group. However, Cypriot populations morphologically resemble recently studied specimens of M. orientalis collected in mainland. For our studies we investigated workers sampled in Adana (Türkiye, 14 V 1993, leg. V. Vohralik), a city located only 60 km east of Ýçel (the type locality of M. orientalis), and Birecik (Türkiye, Þanlýurfa Province, 31 VIII 1988, leg. Růžička and Hlasová) placed close to the Syrian border. We also studied the syntype of M. orientalis collected in Mersina (= Ýçel) (AntWeb.org, CASENT0904132). Gathered evidence confirmed that the populations inhabiting Cyprus represent M. orientalis. Additionally, we suggest assigning all literature records of M. alexandri, M. oertzeni and M. structor from Cyprus to M. orientalis.

Description

References

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

  • Agosti, D. and C.A. Collingwood. 1987. A provisional list of the Balkan ants (Hym. Formicidae) and a key to the worker caste. I. Synonymic list. Mitteilungen der Schweizerischen Entomologischen Gesellschaft, 60: 51-62
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