Liometopum microcephalum

Liometopum microcephalum is a rare arboricolous ant, which forms large colonies of high ecological importance and ranks at the top position in the hierarchy of ant assemblages. Many aspects of the species' biology remain unknown due to its scattered occurrence and difficult nest accessibility. It is uncommon in Greece, being recorded from mainland Greece, Aegean Islands and Ionian Islands. In Achaia, a large column of thousands of workers was observed on the ground and in trees inside high-growing oak forest (Borowiec & Salata, 2021).

Distribution
This is moderately common species, recorded from the Aegean Islands, Epirus, the ionian Islands, Macedonia, Peloponnese, Sterea Ellas, Thessaly and Thrace (Borowiec et al., 2022).

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Palaearctic Region: Albania, Austria, Balearic Islands, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Iran, Israel, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Turkey.

Association with Other Organisms
Pekar (2020) studied the ant-like spider in the Czech Republic. This spider occurred exclusively on tree trunks where L. microcephalum workers occurred. The abundance of M. sociabilis increased positively with the abundance of L. microcephalum. Experiments using an olfactometer and Y-maze with volatile and contact cues obtained from the two most abundant ant species in the area, L. microcephalum and Lasius fuliginosus, were performed to find whether Micaria preferred any cue. Micaria sociabilis did not respond to volatile cues obtained from the gaster of the two ant species. In contrast, it avoided contact cues from L. fuliginosus and was attracted to contact cues from L. microcephalum ants and its gaster extract in hexane. The results thus show that M. sociabilis associates exclusively with L. microcephalum and is attracted to contact cues from this ant while avoiding cues from the competing ant. This study reveals that Batesian mimics may use kairomones to associate with visual models.

Nomenclature

 *  microcephalum. Formica microcephala Panzer, 1798: no. 1652 (m.) AUSTRIA. Mayr, 1861: 39 (w.q.). Combination in Liometopum: Mayr, 1861: 39. Senior synonym of austriaca: Mayr, 1861: 39. See also: Baroni Urbani, 1971c: 158; Atanassov & Dlussky, 1992: 189; Shattuck, 1994: 129; Del Toro, et al. 2009: 325.
 * austriaca. Formica austriaca Mayr, 1853a: 144 (w.) AUSTRIA. Junior synonym of microcephalum: Mayr, 1861: 39.

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