Tapinoma insularis

Tapinoma insularis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Dolichoderinae
Genus:	Tapinoma
Species:	T. insularis
Binomial name
	Tapinoma insularis; Seifert, Kaufmann & Fraysse, 2024

Little information is available. Reported habitats are grassland, coastal sand dunes, house gardens, roadsides, sealed urban areas with little greenery. Alates were observed on 2 April.

Photo Gallery

Seifert et al. (2024), Fig. 38. Tapinoma insularis, holotype, head in full face view, Portopalo / Italy, 2013.04.02.
Seifert et al. (2024), Fig. 39. Tapinoma insularis, holotype, lateral view, Portopalo / Italy, 2013.04.02.
Seifert et al. (2024), Fig. 40. Tapinoma insularis, holotype, anterior head in dorsofronal view, Portopalo / Italy, 2013.04.02.

Identification

Worker (Tab. 5, Figs. 38–40): All shape ratios given below are, in contrast to those in Tab. 5, primary ratios without RAv and all data are given as arithmetic mean ± standard deviation. Slightly smaller than Tapinoma simrothi, CS 824 ± 78 µm. Head slightly more elongated than in T. simrothi, CL/CW 1.120 ± 0.046. Postocular distance rather large, PoOc/CL 0.401 ± 0.009; excavation of hind margin of vertex smaller than in T. simrothi, ExOcc 1.10 ± 0.51%. Anteromedian clypeal excision deep and narrow, ExCly/CS 11.21 ± 0.84%, ExClyW 5.44 ± 0.72%. The edge of clypeal excision curves slightly down below the level of adjacent clypeal surface, thus appearing rather blunt. Sum of pubescence hairs and smaller setae protruding across the margin of clypeal excision including its dorsal edge slightly larger than in T. simrothi, nExCly 8.8 ± 3.7. Scape slightly shorter than in T. simrothi, SL/CS 0.954 ± 0.029. Minimum distance of the inner margins of antennal socket rings rather small, dAN/CS 0.293 ± 0.006. Eye moderately large, EL/CS 0.257 ± 0.010. Metanotal groove moderately deep, MGr/CS 3.24 ± 0.71%. Mesosoma longer than in T. simrothi and moderately wide, ML/CS 1.302 ± 0.032, MW/CS 0.640 ± 0.019. Second funiculus segment rather short, Fu2L/CS 13.42 ± 0.44%, IFu2 1.622 ± 0.106. Pubescence, seta and pigmentation characters as in T. simrothi.

The clear separation from other species of the Tapinoma simrothi group by NUMOBAT and nuDNA data was shown above.

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. 47. Demonstration of two main clusters within worker nest samples of the Tapinoma simrothi group by NC-Ward and NC-part.kmeans clustering considering 16 RAv-corrected phenotypical characters. Black cluster—T. insularis et T. simrothi; gray cluster—T. phoenicaeum et T. karavajevi. The classification error of NC-part.kmeans relative to the controlling linear discriminant function is 2.3% for K=2.
Seifert et al. (2024), Fig. 48. Separation of worker nest samples of Tapinoma simrothi (grey bars) and T. insularis (black bars) by NCWard and NC-part.kmeans clustering considering 16 RAv-corrected NUMOBAT characters. The classification error of NC-part. kmeans relative to the controlling linear discriminant function is 1.5%.
Seifert et al. (2024), Fig. 50. Comparison of the NUMOBAT-based classification of Tapinoma insularis (black rhombs), T. simrothi (white triangles) and T. phoenicaeum (black dots) with the genetic classification based on 15 microsatellite loci. Method: the first four principal components extracted from microsatellite data of only the shown 43 samples were used as characters in a linear discriminant function with the NUMOBAT-based classification imposed as species hypothesis.

Keys including this Species

Key to Palaearctic Tapinoma

Distribution

The species is mainly distributed, with 90% of all findings, over the islands of the Central Mediterranean Sea between 9°E and 15.5°E: Sardinia, Sicily and Isole Egadi, Lampedusa, Kerkennah, and Malta. Two geographic outliers from Abadan (30.347°N, 48.295°E) and Busher (29.839°N, 50.255°E) refer to harbor areas at the Iranian coast of the Persian Gulf and may be interpreted as anthropogenous introductions—if not representing an unrecognized cryptic species. The altitudinal distribution of 25 samples is characterized by 27 ± 31 [1, 106] m.

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: 39.2° to 29.8°.


North Temperate	North Subtropical	Tropical	South Subtropical	South Temperate

Source: Seifert et al., 2024

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Palaearctic Region: Iran, Italy (type locality), Malta, Morocco, Tunisia.

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
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.

insularis. Tapinoma insularis Seifert et al., 2024: 54, figs. 38-40 (w.) ITALY (Sicily).

Type Material

Holotype plus three paratype worker on the same pin from Sicily, labelled “ITA: 36.68176°N, 15.13684°E, Portopalo-1 km E, 46 m, D’Eustacchio 20130404-TSi25”; the sample also contained a male and a gyne; depository SMN Görlitz. If run as wild-card in a LDA considering all NUMOBAT characters, the sample is allocated with p = 0.9992 to its name bearing cluster (see above).

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).