Temnothorax korbi

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Palaearctic Region: Bulgaria, Georgia.

Nomenclature

 *  korbi. Leptothorax corticalis var. korbi Emery, 1924d: 254 (w.q.) TRANSCAUCASIA. [First available use of Leptothorax tuberum subsp. corticalis var. korbi Emery, 1898c: 133; unavailable name.] Combination in Temnothorax: Bolton, 2003: 271. Raised to species: Arnol'di, 1948: 7.

Taxonomic Notes
Radchenko, Yusupov & Fedoseeva (2015) - Radchenko [1994c] has established 12 species groups for the Central and East Palaearctic Temnothorax, and the group korbi among them. The proposed diagnosis of this group was: mesosoma low, long, coarsely longitudinally rugose; petiole low, with the very massive node; propodeum with the very short denticles or only with the blunt tubercles. He placed 5 species to this group: T. korbi, T. caucasicus (Arnoldi, 1977), T. anodonta, T. anodontoides (Dlussky et Zabelin, 1985), and T. iranicus (Radchenko, 1994).

Nevertheless, the previous treatments of T. korbi by Arnoldi [1948, 1977] and by Radchenko [1994a, b, 1995b] proved to be incorrect, and after investigation of the type specimens of this species from the Emery’s collection (MCSNG) (worker and queen, the labels are: “Lept. corticalis var. korbi Emery”, “Lenkoran Korb”), we have ascertained that T. korbi by the short propodeal spines resembles T. corticalis (Schenck, 1852), but by the presence of the shallow metanotal groove and by some other features it should be transferred to the nylanderi species group. As the name T. caucasicus is considered now a junior synonym of T. nadigi (Kutter, 1925) [see Czechowski et al., 2002, 2012], we establish here the nadigi species-group, placing to it T. nadigi itself, Temnothorax anodonta, Temnothorax anodontoides, Temnothorax iranicus, and Temnothorax dlusskyi sp. n.