Temnothorax ravouxi

Temnothorax ravouxi
Conservation status
	; Vulnerable (IUCN 2.3)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Myrmicinae
Tribe:	Crematogastrini
Genus:	Temnothorax
Species group:	palearctic
Species:	T. ravouxi
Binomial name
	Temnothorax ravouxi; (André, 1896) Specimen Label
Synonyms
	Epimyrma goesswaldi Menozzi, 1930; Epimyrma tamarae Arnol'di, 1968; Epimyrma zaleskyi Sadil, 1953;

Temnothorax rauouxi is an active slavemaker with a normally developed worker caste. It conducts well-organized raids upon colonies of its host species (Winter 1979, Buschinger, Winter 1983). Its hosts are most frequently Temnothorax unifasciatus (mainly in the west of Europe), as well as Temnothorax affinis (in the south), Temnothorax albipennis, Temnothorax crasecundus (Georgia), Temnothorax nadigi (Poland), Temnothorax nigriceps and Temnothorax tuberum (in the east) (Czechowski & Czechowska, 2000; Csösz et al., 2015).

At a Glance

• Dulotic

Identification

Prebus (2017) - A member of the Palearctic clade.

Distribution

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: 49.78306° to 36.468611°.


North Temperate	North Subtropical	Tropical	South Subtropical	South Temperate

Source: AntMaps

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Palaearctic Region: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, France (type locality), Germany, Georgia (type locality), Greece, Hungary, Iberian Peninsula, Italy, Poland, Russian Federation, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Türkiye.

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

Temnothorax ravouxi is a slave-making ant, as are most species of the former genus Myrmoxenus (Temnothorax adlerzi and Temnothorax corsicus are workerless degenerate slave-makers). Slaves include the following species (Czechowski & Czechowska, 2000; Báthori et al., 2024):

For a slave raid a few T. ravouxi workers search around their nest for colonies of one of the host species. A successful scout ant then leads a small group of T. ravouxi workers on a short-lived pheromone trail (from poison gland secretion) to the host nest. The slave-makers fight with stinging the defending host workers mainly into the mouthparts or into the gaster. Finally, they carry the host pupae back to the slavemaker nest where they eclose to become slaves. (Winter, U. (1979): Epimyrma goesswaldi MENOZZI, eine sklavenhaltende Ameise. Naturwissenschaften 66, 581-582)

T. ravouxi queen attacking the queen of an invaded nest.

T. ravouxi queen attacking the queen of an invaded nest. Photo by Olivier Delattre

As all former Myrmoxenus species, T. ravouxi founds its colonies in dependence of one of the host species. A mated T. ravouxi queen seeks adoption in a nest, e. g. of T. unifasciatus, where it is barely attacked, then kills the host colony queen by throttling it with her mandibles grasping around the neck or throat of the host queen. This queen dies after several days or even weeks, and the adult host workers accept the T. ravouxi as their replacement queen.

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.

Nematode

This species is a host for the nematode Mermithidae (unspecified "Mermix") (a parasite) in Germany (Gosswald, 1930; Laciny, 2021) (as Epimyrma gösswaldi).

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.

Life History Traits

Queen number: monogynous (Frumhoff & Ward, 1992)
Queen type: winged (Frumhoff & Ward, 1992) (queenless worker reproduction)

Castes

Nomenclature

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

ravouxi. Formicoxenus ravouxi André, 1896a: 367 (q.) FRANCE. Combination in Epimyrma: Emery, 1915a: 262; in Myrmoxenus: Schulz & Sanetra, 2002: 162; in Temnothorax: Ward et al., 2014: 15. Senior synonym of goesswaldi: Buschinger, 1982: 352. See also: Menozzi, 1931c: 44; Kutter, 1973e: 281.
goesswaldi. Epimyrma goesswaldi Menozzi, in Gösswald, 1930: 464, figs. 1-3 (w.q.m.) GERMANY. [Also described as new by Menozzi, 1931c: 41.] Junior synonym of ravouxi: Buschinger, 1982: 352. See also: Stitz, 1939: 186; Kutter, 1973e: 281.

Description

Karyotype

See additional details at the Ant Chromosome Database.

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

n = 10 (France; Germany; Italy; Switzerland) (Buschinger et al., 1986; Fischer, 1987) (as Epimyrma ravouxi).

References

André, E. 1896c. Description d'une nouvelle fourmi de France (Hymén.). Bull. Soc. Entomol. Fr. 1896: 367-368.
Báthori, F., Seifert, B., Heinze, J., Kiran, K., Karaman, C., Csősz, S. 2024. Taxonomy of the Palearctic socially parasitic Temnothorax (Myrmoxenus) ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). PLOS ONE, 19(10), e0308712 (doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0308712).
Beibl, J., Stuart, R.J., Heinze, J., Foitzik, S. 2005. Six origins of slavery in formicoxenine ants. Insectes Sociaux 52, 291–297 (doi:10.1007/s00040-005-0808-y).
Buschinger, A. 1982. Epimyrma goesswaldi Menozzi 1931 = Epimyrma ravouxi (André 1896). Morphologischer und biologischer Nachweis der Synonymie (Hym., Formicidae). Zool. Anz. 208: 352-358 (page 352, Senior synonym of goesswaldi)
Buschinger, A. 1985. The Epimyrma species of Corsica. Spixiana 8: 277-280.
Buschinger, A. 1989a. Evolution, speciation, and inbreeding in the parasitic ant genus Epimyrma (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Journal of Evolutionary Biology 2: 265-283.
Czechowski, W.; Czechowska, W. 2000. Epimyrma ravouxi (André, 1896) (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in the Pieniny Mts - notes on its occurrence and biology. Fragmenta Faunistica 43: 29-33 (page 29, record in Poland)
Emery, C. 1915a. Contributo alla conoscenza delle formiche delle isole italiane. Descrizione di forme mediterrannee nuove o critiche. Ann. Mus. Civ. Stor. Nat. 46[=(3)(6): 244-270 (page 262, Combination in Epimyrma)
Gösswald, K. 1930. Weitere Beiträge zur Verbreitung der Mermithiden bei Ameisen. Zoologischer Anzeiger 90: 13-27.
Gratiashvili, N., Bernadou, A., Suefuji, M., Seifert, B., Heinze, J. 2014. The Caucaso-Anatolian slave-making ant Myrmoxenus tamarae (Arnoldi, 1968) and its more widely distributed congener Myrmoxenus ravouxi (André, 1896): a multidisciplinary comparison (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Organisms, Diversity and Evolution 14: 259–267 (DOI:10.1007/s13127-014-0174-6).
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Menozzi, C. 1930c. [Untitled. Epimyrma goesswaldi, new species, attributed to Menozzi.]. Pp. 464-465 in: Gösswald, K. Die Biologie einer neuen |Epimyrma|art aus dem mittleren Maingebiet. Z. Wiss. Zool. 136:464-484.
Menozzi, C. 1931c. Revisione del genere Epimyrma Em. (Hymen. Formicidae) e descrizione di una specie inedita di questo genere. Memorie della Societa Entomologica Italiana 10: 36-53.
Ortius-Lechner, D., Rüger, M., Wanke, T. 2003. Sexing at the larval stage in two ant species of the Formicoxenini (Hymenoptera). Zoomorphology 122, 41–45 (doi:10.1007/s00435-002-0067-7).
Prebus, M. 2017. Insights into the evolution, biogeography and natural history of the acorn ants, genus Temnothorax Mayr (hymenoptera: Formicidae). Bmc Evolutionary Biology. 17:250. doi:10.1186/s12862-017-1095-8 (The doi link to the publication's journal webpage provides access to the 24 files that accompany this article).
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Schulz, A.; Sanetra, M. 2002. Notes on the socially parasitic ants of Turkey and the synonymy of Epimyrma (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Entomofauna 23(14): 157-172 (page 162, Combination in Myrmoxenus)
Ward, P.S., Brady, S.G., Fisher, B.L., Schultz, T.R. 2015. The evolution of myrmicine ants: phylogeny and biogeography of a hyperdiverse ant clade (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Systematic Entomology 40: 61–81 (doi:10.1111/syen.12090).

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

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AntArea. Accessed on February 5th 2014 at http://antarea.fr/fourmi/
Antarea (at www.antarea.fr on June 11th 2017)
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