Rossomyrmex

Ants of the genus Rossomyrmex are slave-makers that invade nests of genus Proformica to steal brood that will grow up as slaves (Marikovsky, 1974; Ruano & Tinaut, 1999). This genus was first described from the Caucasian steppes (Arnoldi,1928, 1932) with the species R. proformicarum. No further information on this genus appeared for 40 years, until 1974, when the biology of this species was studied by Marikovsky (1974) in the Tian-Shan slopes, near Almaty (Kazakhstan). Tinaut (1981) described workers and queens of a new species : R. minuchae, found in Sierra Nevada (Granada, Spain) thousands of kilometers away from the Central Asian steppes, the only place where the genus was known until then. The third species of the genus, R. quandratinodum, was described in the Chinese region of Urumchi (Xinjiang) (Xia & Zheng, 1995), located in the western part of China and corresponding to a small region between Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

Nomenclature

 *  ROSSOMYRMEX [Formicinae: Formicini]
 * Rossomyrmex Arnol'di, 1928c: 299. Type-species: Rossomyrmex proformicarum, by original designation.