Plagiolepis xene

Plagiolepis xene
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Formicinae
Tribe:	Plagiolepidini
Genus:	Plagiolepis
Species:	P. xene
Binomial name
Plagiolepis xene Stärcke, 1936 Specimen Labels

This species is a workerless inquiline in the nests of Plagiolepis pygmaea and Plagiolepis sp. (taurica group). Queens live in the nest of a different ant species, have no workers and are entirely dependent on their hosts for food. The queens produce eggs that are cared for and raised to maturity by the host workers.

At a Glance

• Workerless Inquiline

 

Distribution

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: 44.1082° to 36.447°.

North Temperate	North Subtropical	Tropical	South Subtropical	South Temperate

• Source: AntMaps

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Palaearctic Region: Andorra, Balearic Islands, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iberian Peninsula, Italy (type locality), Montenegro, Portugal, Russian Federation, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine.

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

Flight Period

						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.

Castes

• The following images are provided by AntWeb
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Nomenclature

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

• xene. Plagiolepis xene Stärcke, 1936: 279 (q.) ITALY. Kutter, 1952: 61 (m.). Combination in P. (Paraplagiolepis): Faber, 1969: 65. See also: Bernard, 1967: 278.

References

• Bernadou, A., Fourcassié, V., Espadaler, X. 2013. A preliminary checklist of the ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) of Andorra. ZooKeys 277, 13–23 (doi:10.3897/zookeys.277.4684).
• Bernard, F. 1967a [1968]. Faune de l'Europe et du Bassin Méditerranéen. 3. Les fourmis (Hymenoptera Formicidae) d'Europe occidentale et septentrionale. Paris: Masson, 411 pp. (page 278, see also)
• Borowiec, L. & Salata, S. 2013. Ants of Greece – additions and corrections (Hymenoptera Formicidae). Genus (Wroclaw) 24, 335-401.
• Borowiec, L. 2014. Catalogue of ants of Europe, the Mediterranean Basin and adjacent regions (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Genus (Wroclaw) 25(1-2): 1-340.
• 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.
• Borowiec, L., Salata, S. 2022. Notes on ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Thassos Island, Greece. Annals of the Upper Silesian Museum in Bytom, Entomology 31 (online 2): 1-15 (doi:10.5281/ZENODO.6123287).
• Borowiec, M.L., Cover, S.P., Rabeling, C. 2021. The evolution of social parasitism in Formica ants revealed by a global phylogeny. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118, e2026029118 (doi:10.1073/pnas.2026029118).
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• Espadaler, X.; Cagniant, H. 1992 ("1991"). Plagiolepis xene Stärcke, the first inquiline ant from the Balearic Islands, Spain. Psyche (Cambridge) 98:351-354. [1992-09-04]
• Faber, W. 1969. Beiträge zur Kenntnis sozialparasitischer Ameisen. 2. Aporomyrmex ampeloni nov. gen., nov. spec. (Hym. Formicidae), ein neuer permanenter Sozialparasit bei Plagiolepis vindobonensis Lomnicki aus Österreich. Pflanzenschutz Ber. 39: 39-100 (page 65, Combination in P. (Paraplagiolepis))
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• Kutter, H. 1952a. Über Plagiolepis xene Stärcke (Hym., Formicid.). Mitt. Schweiz. Entomol. Ges. 25: 57-72 (page 61, male described)
• Lapeva-Gjonova, A., Antonova, V. 2022. An updated checklist of ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) of Bulgaria, after 130 years of research. Biodiversity Data Journal 10, e95599 (doi:10.3897/bdj.10.e95599).
• Lapeva-Gjonova, A., Borowiec, L. 2022. New and little-known ant species (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) from Bulgaria. Biodiversity Data Journal, 10: e83658 (doi:10.3897/bdj.10.e83658 ).
• Pérez‐Marcos, M., López‐Gallego, E., Arnaldos, M.I., Martínez‐Ibáñez, D., García, M.D. 2020. Formicidae (Hymenoptera) community in corpses at different altitudes in a semiarid wild environment in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula. Entomological Science 23, 297–310 (doi:10.1111/ENS.12422).
• Radchenko, A. G.; Tsyubik, M. M. 1990. On the discovery of a new member of the genus Plagiolepis Mayr (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in the USSR. [Abstract.] Vestn. Zool. 1: 85 (page 85, Record in Ukraine)
• Schifani, E., Csősz, S., Viviano, R., Alicata, A. 2021. Ant diversity on the largest Mediterranean islands: on the presence or absence of 28 species in Sicily (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Natural History Sciences 8, 55–70 (doi:10.4081/nhs.2021.532).
• Schifani, E., Nalini, E., Gentile, V., Alamanni, F., Ancona, C., Caria, M., Cillo, D., Bazzato, E. 2021. Ants of Sardinia: An updated checklist based on new faunistic, morphological and biogeographical notes. Redia 104, 21–35 (doi:10.19263/redia-104.21.03).
• Schultner, E., Pulliainen, U. 2020. Brood recognition and discrimination in ants. Insectes Sociaux 67, 11–34 (doi:10.1007/s00040-019-00747-3).
• Stärcke, A. 1936. Retouches sur quelques fourmis d'Europe. I. Plagiolepis xene nov. sp. et Pl. vindobonensis Lomnicki. Entomol. Ber. (Amst.) 9: 277-279 (page 279, queen described)
• Trible, W., Kronauer, D.J.C. 2017. Caste development and evolution in ants: it's all about size. Journal of Experimental Biology 220, 53–62 (doi:10.1242/jeb.145292).

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

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