Temnothorax ansei

This species is known from two locations in southeast Spain: Pulpí (Almería) and Lorca (Murcia). It is distinctly nocturnal in its activity patterns.

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Palaearctic Region: Iberian Peninsula, Spain.

Biology
Foraging workers of T. ansei were attracted to the baits at night, or sometimes during twilight (in June and July, the workers begin to forage from approximately about 19:00 GMT). After feeding for a few minutes, they carried a small cookie crumb to their nearby nest, although never more than one meter away. Through careful monitoring in a territory of about 230 m2, we were able to locate five nests, each with a single entrance hole in the soil of approximately 1 mm in diameter. These nests were very hard to detect as they lacked any external signs or evidence of ant activity.

We excavated the five nests and found that the main chamber was about 15-20 cm deep. Colonies ranged from two to 52 workers. Two of them had two wingless queens. Three of these colonies were relocated to our laboratory and have been maintained there under controlled conditions to date. The other two, an incipient colony with only two workers and other with 13, did not survive in captivity. Ants were fed with honey-water and small crickets and have produced during two years new males and females. These sexuals were born from eggs laid by the queen in the laboratory. All 19 queens born in captivity lost their wings in the first 1-4 weeks, 13 of them in the first three days, and then continued living normally in the nest, cooperating with the others. This behaviour has also been observed in other species of the group, for instance T. caesari (Espadaler, 1997b). Eggs, larvae and pupae were placed by the workers in one group on the floor of one chamber altogether.

Ecology
Both collecting localities are semiarid habitats with sparse vegetation cover, dominated by Stipa tenacissima L. grassland at the Pulpí site and chamaephytes and little shrubs at the Lorca site. Altitudes are 243 m at Pulpí and 464–591 m at Lorca. The average annual rainfall is 272 and 313 mm at Pulpí and Lorca sites, respectively.

We found 25 ant species at the same habitat, including T. universitatis, a species we consider, based on the morphology, to be the closest relative of T. ansei.

Nomenclature

 *  ansei. Temnothorax ansei Catarineu, Barberá & Reyes-López, 2017: 139 (w.q.m.) SPAIN.