Temnothorax ravouxi

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Palaearctic Region: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iberian Peninsula, Italy, Poland, Russian Federation, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland.

Biology
Temnothorax ravouxi is a slavemaking ant, as are most of its congeners of former genus Myrmoxenus (the former Myrmoxenus adlerzi and M. corsicus are workerless degenerate slavemakers). Slaves of T. ravouxi are mainly Temnothorax unifasciatus, T. nigriceps, and rarely T. affinis.



For a slave raid a few T. ravouxi workers search around their nest for colonies of one of the host species. A successful scout ant then leads a small group of T. ravouxi workers on a short-lived pheromone trail (from poison gland secretion) to the host nest. The slave-makers fight with stinging the defending host workers mainly into the mouthparts or into the gaster. Finally, they carry the host pupae back to the slavemaker nest where they eclose to become slaves. (Winter, U. (1979): Epimyrma goesswaldi MENOZZI, eine sklavenhaltende Ameise. Naturwissenschaften 66, 581-582)



As all former Myrmoxenus species, T. ravouxi founds its colonies in dependence of one of the host species. A mated T. ravouxi queen seeks adoption in a nest, e. g. of T. unifasciatus, where it is barely attacked, then kills the host colony queen by throttling it with her mandibles grasping around the neck or throat of the host queen. This queen dies after several days or even weeks, and the adult host workers accept the T. ravouxi as their replacement queen.

For a very good picture see: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EXR4-5ORL_g/UHWTZiTzy9I/AAAAAAAAAi0/hYEaspqEgSA/s1600/epimyrma_fond+by+Olivier+Delattre.jpg

Nomenclature

 *  ravouxi. Formicoxenus ravouxi André, 1896a: 367 (q.) FRANCE. Combination in Epimyrma: Emery, 1915a: 262; in Myrmoxenus: Schulz & Sanetra, 2002: 162; in Temnothorax: Ward et al., 2014: 15. Senior synonym of goesswaldi: Buschinger, 1982: 352. See also: Menozzi, 1931c: 44; Kutter, 1973e: 281.
 * goesswaldi. Epimyrma goesswaldi Menozzi, in Gösswald, 1930: 464, figs. 1-3 (w.q.m.) GERMANY. [Also described as new by Menozzi, 1931c: 41.] Junior synonym of ravouxi: Buschinger, 1982: 352. See also: Stitz, 1939: 186; Kutter, 1973e: 281.