Tetramorium chefketi

Tetramorium chefketi
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Myrmicinae
Tribe:	Crematogastrini
Genus:	Tetramorium
Species:	T. chefketi
Binomial name
	Tetramorium chefketi; Forel, 1911 Specimen Labels
Synonyms
	Tetramorium caespitum sarkissiani Forel, 1911; Tetramorium caespitum turcomanicum Santschi, 1921; Tetramorium taurocaucasicum Arnol'di, 1968;

At Rawdhat Khorim, Saudia Arabia, this species is relatively common and observed foraging on Ziziphus nummularia (Burm. f) Wight & Arn. (Rhamnaceae). The species has two abundance peaks, in June and November. It was collected using pitfall traps and beating vegetation (Sharaf et al., 2013). Pashaei Rad et al. (2018) found this species in Iran in Caspian moist littoral and moderate rainfall montane areas.

It is a moderately common species in Greece (Borowiec & Salata, 2021), being recorded from three mainland and three island provinces, as well as Peloponnese. Workers were collected under stone at the border area between mountain pasture and fir forest.

Identification

Csösz, Radchenko and Schulz (2007) - Workers of T. chefketi can be separated from related species by the lack of psammophore, relatively small eyes, long and smooth scape without dorsal carina basally, coarse body sculpture and cubic petiolar node. Workers of T. chefketi mostly resemble those of Tetramorium rhodium and Tetramorium sanetrai, but SL/CS gives appropriate discrimination between them. Discriminant D(3a) function between workers of T. chefketi vs. Tetramorium exile and T. chefketi vs. Tetramorium anatolicum proves the separation (see differential diagnosis of T. exile).

Gynes of T. chefketi can be distinguished by lacking of psammophore, long and smooth scape, wide scutum, relatively narrow petiole and postpetiole, and rugoso-reticulate katepisternum. Gynes of T. chefketi mostly resemble those of T. sanetrai, but SL/CS gives appropriate discrimination between them.

Keys including this Species

Distribution

This species was recorded from Saudi Arabia (Collingwood, 1985), Oman and Yemen (Collingwood and Agosti, 1996). Outside Arabia, it has been reported from several parts of the Palaearctic region including southern Europe (Greece, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Romania), southern Ukraine, south of western Russia, northwestern Caucasus, Turkey, Turkmenistan, northern Kazakhstan, southeastern Siberia, to the east to Kyrgyzstan and Altai Mountains (Csõsz et al., 2007) (Sharaf et al., 2013).

This is a moderately common species, recorded from the Aegean Islands, Crete, the Ionian Islands, Macedonia, Thessaly and Thrace (Borowiec et al., 2022).

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: 44.573° to 15.355556°.


North Temperate	North Subtropical	Tropical	South Subtropical	South Temperate

Source: AntMaps

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Afrotropical Region: Saudi Arabia.
Palaearctic Region: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, China, Georgia, Greece, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, North Macedonia, Oman, Romania, Russian Federation, Türkiye (type locality), 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

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 ant Tetramorium atratulum (a workerless inquiline) in Bulgaria, Turkey (Lapeva-Gjonova et al., 2012).
This species is a host for the ant Tetramorium buschingeri (a inquiline) in Bulgaria (Kiran et al., 2017).
This species is a host for the ant Tetramorium seiferti (a inquiline) in Turkey (Kiran et al., 2017).
This species is a mutualist for the aphid Aphis craccivora (a trophobiont) (Özdemir et al., 2008; Mortazavi et al., 2015; Saddiqui et al., 2019).
This species is a mutualist for the aphid Aphis rumicis (a trophobiont) (Özdemir et al., 2008; Saddiqui et al., 2019).

Castes

Csosz et al. 2007. FIGURES 32–38. Tetramorium chefketi Forel, 1911. Gyne: alitrunk petiole and postpetiole, Fig. 32. dorsal view, Fig. 33. lateral view, Fig. 34. head. Worker: Fig. 35. head. Alitrunk petiole and postpetiole, Fig. 36. dorsal view, Fig. 37. Lateral view, Fig. 38. scape, dorsal view.

Worker

Images from AntWeb


Type of unavailable quadrinomial: Tetramorium caespitum caespitum turcomanicum. Worker. Specimen code casent0904811. Photographer Will Ericson, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences.	Owned by MSNG, Genoa, Italy.


Worker. Specimen code casent0906711. Photographer Estella Ortega, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences.	Owned by CAS, San Francisco, CA, USA.

Nomenclature

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

chefketi. Tetramorium caespitum var. chefketi Forel, 1911d: 332 (w.) TURKEY. Raised to species: Agosti & Collingwood, 1987a: 56. Senior synonym of taurocaucasicum: Güsten, Schulz & Sanetra, 2006: 16; of sarkissiani, turcomanicum: Csösz, Radchenko & Schulz, 2007: 18.
sarkissiani. Tetramorium caespitum var. sarkissiani Forel, 1911d: 332 (w.) TURKEY. Subspecies of ferox: Menozzi, 1934: 163. Junior synonym of chefketi: Csösz, Radchenko & Schulz, 2007: 18.
turcomanicum. Tetramorium caespitum st. turcomanicum Santschi, 1921a: 111 (w.q.) KAZAKHSTAN. [First available use of Tetramorium caespitum subsp. caespitum var. turcomanica Emery, 1909d: 702; unavailable name.] Raised to species: Tarbinsky, 1976: 109. Junior synonym of chefketi: Csösz, Radchenko & Schulz, 2007: 18.
taurocaucasicum. Tetramorium taurocaucasicum Arnol'di, 1968: 1813, fig. 12 (w.q.m.) UKRAINE. Junior synonym of forte: Radchenko, 1992b: 51; Atanassov & Dlussky, 1992: 152; of chefketi: Güsten, Schulz & Sanetra, 2006: 16.

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

Description

Worker

Csösz, Radchenko and Schulz (2007) - Lectotype. CL: 990; CW: 990; FR: 370; FL: 385; SL: 810; ML: 1150; MW: 660; PEW: 360; PEH: 365; NOH: 220; NOL: 230; PEL: 225; PPW: 415; PPL: 230; PPH: 355; SPL: 135; SPSP: 230.

Figss 35–38. Medium to large size, CS 869 [740, 972]. Whole body and appendages dark brown to black. Head nearly square, CL/CW 1.01 [0.97, 1.04], with very feebly convex sides, straight occipital margin and rounded occipital corners. Eyes small, EYE 0.171 [0.165, 0.184]. Frons moderately narrow, FR/CS 0.37 [0.35, 0.39], frontal lobes usually wider, FL/FR 1.03 [1.0, 1.09]. Scape long, SL/CS 0.82 [0.78, 0.87], without longitudinal dorsal carina basally, smooth and shiny. Promesonotal dorsum slightly convex, metanotal groove rather deep. Propodeal teeth long. Petiolar node cubic in profile, NOH/NOL 0.86 [0.76, 0.97], petiole relatively low and long, and PEH/NOL 1.52 [1.37, 1.69]. General appearance coarsely rugose, ground surface microreticulate. Head dorsum longitudinally rugose and microreticulate, occiput and sides rugoso-reticulate, ground surface microreticulate. Alitrunk dorsum, mesopleuron and dorsum of petiolar node rugoso-reticulate, ground surface coarsely microreticulate, dorsum of postpetiole longitudinally rugulose and microreticulate. Polygonal striation continuous on 1st gastral tergite (see fig. 8.). Ventral surface of head with several short and few longer straight setae, arising posterior to buccal cavity (see fig. 5.).

Queen

Csösz, Radchenko and Schulz (2007) - Figs 32–34. Large size, CS 1121 [1060, 1180]. Whole body and appendages black. Head wider than long, CL/CW 0.92 [0.89, 0.95] with sides and occipital margin straight, and widely rounded occipital corners. Frons moderately narrow, FR/CS 0.38 [0.36, 0.40], frontal lobes as wide as frons, or slightly wider FL/FR 1.01 [1.0, 1.03]. Scape long, SL/CS 0.77, without longitudinal dorsal carina basally, smooth and shiny. Head wider than scutum, MW/CS 0.94 [0.88, 1.01]. Propodeal teeth long. Dorsal crest of petiolar node straight in frontal view; in profile, node with flattened dorsal surface. Petiole and postpetiole relatively narrow, WAIST 0.90 [0.86, 0.96]. General appearance coarsely rugose, ground surface microreticulate, dull. Head dorsum, occiput and sides rugoso-reticulate, ground surface microreticulate. Frons longitudinally rugose and microreticulate. Scutum and scutellum longitudinally rugose, scutellum more or less smooth medially. Sides of alitrunk, rugoso-reticulate and microreticulate, ventral part of katepisternum always rugulose, or microreticulate. Dorsum of petiolar node and postpetiole coarsely reticulate and microreticulate. Polygonal striation disrupted on 1st gastral tergite, superficially microreticulate basally. Ventral surface of head with several short and few longer straight, or few C-shaped setae arising posterior to buccal cavity.

Male

Csösz, Radchenko and Schulz (2007) - Whole body and appendages black. Head with convex sides, rounded occipital margin and widely rounded occipital corners. Head as wide as scutum. Propodeal teeth short, propodeum angulate in profile. Dorsal crest of petiolar node in frontal view with sharp, slightly emarginate, transversal edge. Head, alitrunk and waist coarsely sculptured, ground surface microreticulate, dull. Head rugoso-reticulate, ground surface microreticulate. Scutum and scutellum longitudinally rugose. Sides of alitrunk longitudinally rugose. Dorsum of petiolar node and postpetiole coarsely reticulate. Polygonal striation disrupted on 1st gastral tergite.

Type Material

Csösz, Radchenko and Schulz (2007) - Lectotype worker and paralectotype workers (Musee d'Histoire Naturelle Genève). Lectotype designation. We investigated three syntype workers mounted on one pin, labeled as: “T. caespitum L.”, “Bou Youk Déré”, “Bosphore européen (Forel)”, “v. chefketi Type For”, “v. T. chefketi For”, Typus, Coll. Forel.

The lectotype is positioned on the distal end of the upper card (this is mentioned on the reverse side of lectotype label). The lectotype is in good condition, except that the left funiculus (excluding the first segment), the left foreleg and the tarsus of the right hind leg are missing.

References

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

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