Myrmica vandeli

Myrmica vandeli
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Myrmicinae
Tribe:	Myrmicini
Genus:	Myrmica
Species group:	sabuleti
Species:	M. vandeli
Binomial name
	Myrmica vandeli; Bondroit, 1920 Specimen Label

Radchenko and Elmes (2010) - M. vandeli inhabits almost exclusively rather warm but humid sites, such as wet meadows, marshes and bogs, where it builds nests usually in moss pads, tussocks of grass and sedge, rarely in the soil under stones. Almost always M. vandeli coexists with Myrmica scabrinodis, though it is generally a much less abundant and widespread species. The parasitic morphological features of the queens and males led Bondroit (1920a: 148) to suggest a socially-parasitic style of life for M. vandeli: “Il est probable que le M. vandeli est une espece parasite”. We have found both pure colonies and colonies of mixed M. scabrinodis and Myrmica vandeli (Elmes et al. 2003; Radchenko et al. 2003; Radchenko 2009) in the central part of its range, where environmental conditions probably are optimal for M. vandeli, we hardly ever located mixed colonies, but at the edges of its distribution (e.g. in Great Britain, Poland or Ukraine) M. vandeli often coexists with M. scabrinodis. This led us to suggest that in poor or new habitat queens of M. vandeli might resort to facultative social parasitism to found colonies, but in optimum habitats it may be able to establish colonies by independent foundation or by colony division. Seifert (2018) suggests that this parasitic relationship may not require host queen killing by M. vandeli.

At a Glance

• Temporary parasite

Identification

Radchenko and Elmes (2010) - A member of the sabuleti complex of the scabrinodis species group. It was originally described from queens and males from France and was known only from the type series for more than 50 years, until Kutter (1977) described workers of this species from Switzerland. Elmes and Thomas (1985) showed that it is a quite common free-living species in France that can easily be discriminated from M. scabrinodis (all castes) by morphometrics.

M. vandeli possess several “socially parasitic” features, such as reduced spurs on the mid- and hind tibiae and hairy body, and by this characters is similar to Myrmica bibikoffi and Myrmica hirsuta. On the other hand, workers of M. vandeli appear very similar to those of Myrmica scabrinodis by the shape of alitrunk and waist, by the size and shape of the lobe at the bent of the scape, by the shape of frontal carinae and frontal lobes (including FI and FLI), but differ from the latter by more abundant standing hairs on the body (petiole with> 10, often> 20 hairs vs. < 10, usually ~ 8 hairs), by the presence of at least shallow medial notch on the anterior c1ypeal margin, by the less coarse, almost straight longitudinal rugosity on the alitrunk dorsum (vs. strong reticulation in M. scabrinodis) and by the reduced (to various extents) sculpture of the petiolar and postpetiolar dorsum, and finally, by its reduced tibial spurs. Males of M. vandeli have relatively long scapes and could be confused with Myrmica sabuleti, but they well differ from it by the presence of abundant long standing hairs on the scape and head margins, and by the much shorter hairs on the mid- and hind tibiae. Queens of M. vandeli differ from those of all species of the scabrinodis-group by their large size, very dark, almost black body colour, and especially by the characteristic longitudinally-concentric rugosity on the petiolar node dorsum.

Garcia et al. (2024), Figure 9A. Petiole in dorsal view of M. vandeli worker from Spain.

Keys including this Species

Distribution

Garcia et al. (2024), Figure 11. Distribution of Iberian parasitic Myrmica records, including Myrmica babiensis. Red lines indicate limits of Spanish provinces. Legend of species in picture.

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: 59.7877° to 42.596228°.


North Temperate	North Subtropical	Tropical	South Subtropical	South Temperate

Source: AntMaps

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Palaearctic Region: Austria, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Czechia, France (type locality), Germany, Hungary, Iberian Peninsula, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Distribution based on AntMaps

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.

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.

Biology

Association with Other Organisms

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 host for the fungus Rickia wasmanniii (a parasite) (Quevillon, 2018) (encounter mode primary; direct transmission; transmission within nest).
This species is a host for the fungus Rickia wasmanniii (a pathogen) (Espadaler & Santamaria, 2012; De Kesel et al. 2016, Haelewaters et al. 2015a, 2015b).

Flight Period

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

Source: antkeeping.info.

Check details at Worldwide Ant Nuptial Flights Data, AntNupTracker and AntKeeping.

Explore: Show all Flight Month data or Search these data. See also a list of all data tables or learn how data is managed.

Castes

Nomenclature

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

vandeli. Myrmica vandeli Bondroit, 1920a: 148, figs. 1, 2 (q.m.) FRANCE. [Also described as new by Bondroit, 1920b: 301.] Kutter, 1977c: 71 (w.). Subspecies of scabrinodis: Weber, 1950b: 211. Revived status as species: Bernard, 1967: 122; Kutter, 1977c: 71; Seifert, 1988b: 33. See also: Elmes & Thomas, 1985: 97; Radchenko & Elmes, 2003a: 230; Radchenko & Elmes, 2010: 315.

Unless otherwise noted the text for the remainder of this section is reported from the publication that includes the original description.

Description

Etymology

Radchenko and Elmes (2010) - this species was named for the French biologist Prof. Albert Vandel (1894-1980) who collected the type specimens.

References

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Kutter, H. 1977c. Hymenoptera, Formicidae. Insecta Helv. Fauna 6: 1-298 (page 71, worker described, Revived status as species)
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