Tapinoma glabrella

Tapinoma glabrella
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Dolichoderinae
Genus:	Tapinoma
Species:	T. glabrella
Binomial name
	Tapinoma glabrella; Nylander, 1849
Synonyms
	Tapinoma breve Emery, 1925; Tapinoma tauridis Emery, 1925;

Seifert et al. (2024) report that among 27 records with information on habitat, 25 referred to open land and 2 to light broad-leafed forest. Within the open land habitats, pastures and uncultivated dry grasslands dominated but the list included also rural and urban habitats such as road sides, gardens or city parks. Furthermore, it occurred on gravel banks of floodplains, here occasionally in rather moist conditions, and one nest was found in a moving aeolic sand dune. Nests were polygynous and the main period for occurrence of alates was 3 May to 6 June.

Identification

Worker (Tab. 2): All shape ratios given below are, in contrast to those in Tab. 2, primary ratios without RAv and all data are given as arithmetic mean ± standard deviation. Slightly larger than T. erraticum, CS 777 ± 83 µm. Head moderately elongated CL/CW 1.124 ± 0.046. Postocular distance medium-sized, PoOc/CL 0.405 ± 0.011. Anteromedian clypeal excision slightly deeper and narrower than in T. erraticum, ExCly/CS 9.07 ± 1.53 %, ExClyW 5.84 ± 0.70 %. The margin of clypeal excision forms a sharp cuticular edge beginning from its frontal corners caudad over at least 70% of its length and is in this area at same level as the adjacent clypeal surface. Sum of pubescence hairs and smaller setae protruding at a few micron across margin of clypeal excision larger than in T. erraticum, nExCly 4.87 ± 3.50. Posterior margin of head in full face view in medium-sized and large specimens slightly excavated, ExOcc/CS 1.17 ± 0.77 %. Scape shorter than in erraticum, SL/CS 0.987 ± 0.025. Minimum distance of the inner margins of antennal socket rings medium-sized, dAN/CS 0.285 ± 0.008. Eye slightly larger than in T. erraticum, EL/CS 0.271 ± 0.009. Metanotal groove moderately deep, MGr/CS 3.12 ± 1.03 %. Mesosoma slightly narrower and shorter than in T. erraticum, MW/CS 0.648 ± 0.023, ML/CS 1.324 ± 0.035. Second funiculus segment shorter than in T. erraticum, Fu2L/CS 13.41 ± 0.40 %, IFu2 1.579 ± 0.083. Seta condition, pubescence and pigmentation similar to T. erraticum.

Male genital (Fig. 02): ventral aspect. In basic structure similar to erraticum and showing a lot of variation which prevents a clear species separation by simple eye inspection. Lobes of subgenital plate rather broad, their length extends over 50 to 90% of the visible length of the basimere. The apical margins of the lobes vary from straight to semicircular. The shape of the mediodistal part of the basimere shows various transitions between three extremes: (1) it may form a sharp hook the tip of which is directed mediad, (2) it is straight and directed mediocaudad and shows a rather blunt chisel-like tip, (3) it forms a sharp spine-like extension directed caudad. The harpago segments are rather small, their lateral margins are usually more strongly incurved towards the tip than in erraticum.

The clear separation of workers from Tapinoma erraticum and T. israelis was shown in the section on Tapinoma erraticum. In contrast to the rather monomorphic situation in T. erraticum, the T. glabrella worker population shows a high variation due to significant geographic substructuring within its huge range. This is mirrored by the situation in male genitalia. Reasons for the synonymization of Tapinoma tauridis and Tapinoma breve based on investigation of type specimens are given in the explanatory text within the account of synonymies.

Seifert et al. (2024), Fig. 2. Terminology of male genitalia in ventral view shown in the example of Tapinoma glabrella from Dragonja / Slovenia, 2017.05.15.
Seifert et al. (2024), Fig. 5. Separation of 546 sample means of three groups of cryptic species by a linear discriminant analysis considering 15 NUMOBAT characters. Red symbols: Tapinoma erraticum group; rhombs erraticum, crosses israelis, squares glabrella. Black symbols: T. nigerrimum group; discs nigerrimum, squares hispanicum, crosses magnum, triangles ibericum, rhombs darioi. White symbols: T. simrothi group; squares simrothi, discs insularis, triangles phoenicaeum, rhombs karavajevi.
Seifert et al. (2024), Fig. 20. Clypeal excision of Tapinoma karavajevi (left) and T. glabrella (right); the broad white reflexion in the left picture indicates the blunt margin of clypeal excision.
Seifert et al. (2024), Fig. 41. Nest sample means of the first two principal components extracted from 12 RAv-corrected phenotypical characters. Black squares—Tapinoma glabrella (n=70); white dots—T. erraticum (n=49); black crosses T. israelis (n=9).

Keys including this Species

Key to Palaearctic Tapinoma

Distribution

Widely distributed over the Mediterranean, Sub-Mediterranean, Ponto-South-Siberian and Turanian regions of the West and Central Palaearctic. The western, eastern, southern and northern range limits are at 3.9°E in France, at 82.3°E in Kazakhstan, at 33.2°N in Central Iran and at 49.4°N in the Ukraine. Ascending to 2500 m at 38.5°N in Turkey. Broadly sympatric with T. erraticum in Italy and the W Balkans and there is a small sympatric zone with T. israelis in Asia Minor.

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: 49.4° to 33.2°.


North Temperate	North Subtropical	Tropical	South Subtropical	South Temperate

Source: Seifert et al., 2024

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Palaearctic Region: Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, France , Georgia, Greece, Iran, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Montenegro, Russian Federation (type locality), Slovenia, Türkiye, 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.

Biology

Flight Period

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

Source: Seifert et al., 2024.

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.

glabrella. Formica glabrella Nylander, 1849: 38 (footnote) (w.) RUSSIA.
- Junior synonym of erraticum: Smith, F. 1855a: 111; Mayr, 1855: 373; Radchenko, 2007: 38.
- Status as species: Seifert et al., 2024: 36.

Type Material

Formica glabrella

The species has been described from Cherkassy /Ukraine. Seifert et al. (2024) investigated two type workers on two different pins, both deposited in ZM Helsinki. One worker labelled “Tscherkassk”, “Motschoulsky”, “Coll. Nyland.”, “Motsch. 23”, “Spec. type No. 5092 Formica glabrella Nyl.” was fixed by present designation as lectotype.

The type series is allocated to the T. glabrella cluster with p=0.9998 in a wild-card run of a LDA considering 12 morphometric characters (Tab. 1). The paratype worker on the other pin had the same labelling except for “Spec. type No. 5093 Formica glabrella Nyl.”. It belongs to Tapinoma subboreale.

Tapinoma tauridis

The taxon has been described from the Crimea based on collections made by Mejunov and Karavajev. Investigated by Seifert et al. (2024) were two type specimens, a male and a worker, from MCSN Genova.

The male, labelled “Crimée Mejunoff”, “SYNTYPUS Tapinoma tauridis Emery, 1925” was fixed by present designation as lectotype (“Lectotype Tapinoma tauridis Emery 1925, des. B Seifert 2015”) . A synonymization with T. erraticum and israelis is excluded by geographic indication. The syntype worker is labelled “Crimée Karavaiev”, “T. tauridis Emery”[Emery’s handwriting], “ANTWEB CASENT 0904021”, “SYNTYPUS Tapinoma tauridis Emery, 1925”. It is allocated to the T. glabrella cluster with p=0.9960 in a wild-card run of a LDA considering 12 morphometric characters (Tab. 1).

Tapinoma breve

The taxon has been described based on material collected by Kuznetzov-Ugamsky in the Kysyl valley, former Syr Darja province, at an elevation of 6000 feet.

According to the altitude record, the site must be in the NW Tian Shan (approximately at 42.5°N, 71.6°E) and belongs to the present Kyrgistan. Investigated by Seifert et al. (2024) were two syntype workers from MCSN Genova, labelled “Prov. Syr Darja, Kisil Tal”, “T. breve Emery”[Emery’s handwriting], “ANTWEB CASENT0904020”, “SYNTYPUS Tapinoma breve Emery, 1925”. The specimen CASENT0904020 with CW=644 is fixed by present designation as lectotype. The other type specimen has CW= 563. The type sample is allocated to the T. glabrella cluster with p=0.9446 in a wild-card run of a LDA considering 12 morphometric characters (Tab. 1).

Description

References

Seifert, B., Kaufmann, B., Fraysse, L. 2024. A taxonomic revision of the Palaearctic species of the ant genus Tapinoma Mayr 1861 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Zootaxa 5435(1), 1-74 (doi:10.11646/zootaxa.5435.1.1).