Pheidole koshewnikovi

Mediterranean populations of the taxon named Pheidole pallidula have recently been divided into four species, three of them recorded in Greece (Seifert, 2016), but this revision is still under discussion owing to the great local variability of this very common Mediterranean ant. From the northern Aegean Islands was recorded Pheidole balcanica and Pheidole koshewnikovi (Borowiec et al., 2022).

Distribution
Khalili-Moghadam et al. (2019) report the first record of P. koshewnikovi from Iran. According to the recent revision of the Pheidole pallidula species-group (SEIFERT 2016), however, all previous Iranian records of Pheidole pallidula probably relate to P. koshewnikovi, which is the species with the easternmost distribution of this group.

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Palaearctic Region: Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Greece, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Montenegro, Russian Federation, Turkey, Uzbekistan.

Nomenclature

 *  koshewnikovi. Pheidole pallidula subsp. koshewnikovi Ruzsky, 1905b: 648 (s.w.) KAZAKHSTAN.
 * Subspecies of pallidula: Baroni Urbani, 1968b: 448; Tarbinsky, 1976: 70; Bolton, 1995b: 324.
 * Status as species: Seifert, 2016b: 13.
 * Senior synonym of arenarum, orientalis: Seifert, 2016b: 13.
 * arenarum. Pheidole pallidula var. arenarum Ruzsky, 1905b: 647 (s.w.m.) TURKMENISTAN, UZBEKISTAN.
 * Karavaiev, 1926b: 106 (q.).
 * Subspecies of pallidula: Emery, 1915j: 226; Emery, 1916b: 149; Emery, 1921f: 86; Ruzsky, 1923: 4; Emery, 1924a: 8; Karavaiev, 1926b: 106; Karavaiev, 1927a: 288; Menozzi, 1933b: 57; Finzi, 1936: 162; Menozzi, 1936d: 279; Finzi, 1939c: 155; Finzi, 1940: 159; Bernard, 1948: 141; Bernard, 1950b: 287; Bernard, 1953a: 147; Pisarski, 1967: 385; Baroni Urbani, 1968b: 448; Pisarski, 1970: 307.
 * Status as species: Collingwood, 1961a: 64; Collingwood, 1961b: 289.
 * Junior synonym of pallidula: Atanassov & Dlussky, 1992: 123.
 * Junior synonym of koshewnikovi: Seifert, 2016b: 13.
 * orientalis. Pheidole pallidula subsp. orientalis Müller, 1923: 69 (s.w.) TURKESTAN.
 * [First available use of Pheidole pallidula subsp. arenarum var. orientalis Emery, 1915j: 230; unavailable (infrasubspecific) name.]
 * Karavaiev, 1926b: 107 (q.m.); Menozzi, 1936d: 280 (l.).
 * Subspecies of pallidula: Menozzi, 1928a: 126.
 * Junior synonym of pallidula: Baroni Urbani, 1964a: 3; Atanassov & Dlussky, 1992: 123.
 * Junior synonym of koshewnikovi: Seifert, 2016b: 13.

Taxonomic Notes
Pashaei Rad et al. (2018): Seifert (2016) considers Pheidole orientalis to be a junior synonym of P. koshnewnikovi. While there are similarities, the latter is consistently some 20% smaller than the orientalis type and those we report here.

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

 * Andoni V. 1977. Kontribut mbi Himenopteret e familjes Formicidae te vendit tone. Buletini I Shkencave te Natyres 31(2): 93-101.
 * Bernard F. 1953. Les fourmis du Tassili des Ajjer. Pp. 121-250 in: Bernard, F. (ed.) 1953. Mission scientifique au Tassili des Ajjer (1949). Volume I. Recherches zoologiques et médicales. Paris: P. Lechevalier, 302 pp.
 * Collingwood C. A. 1961. The third Danish Expedition to Central Asia. Zoological Results 27. Formicidae (Insecta) from Afghanistan. Videnskabelige Meddelelser fra Dansk Naturhistorisk Forening 123: 51-79.
 * Crawley W. C. 1920. Ants from Mesopotamia and north-west Persia. Entomol. Rec. J. Var. 32: 162-166.
 * Emery C. 1915. Les Pheidole du groupe megacephala (Formicidae). Revue Zoologique Africaine (Brussels) 4: 223-250.
 * Finzi B. 1930. Hymenopteren aus Palästina und Syrien. (Zoologische Studienreise von R. Ebner 1928 mit Unterstützung der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien.) Formicidae. Sitzungsberichte der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien. Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Klasse. Abteilung I 139:22-24.
 * Finzi, B. "Risultati scientifici della spedizione Ravasini-Lona in Albania. III. Formiche." Bollettino della Società Entomologica Italiana 55 (1923): 1-4.
 * Guénard B., and R. R. Dunn. 2012. A checklist of the ants of China. Zootaxa 3558: 1-77.
 * Karavaiev V. 1926. Beiträge zur Ameisenfauna des Kaukasus, nebst einigen Bemerkungen über andere palaearktische Formen. Konowia 5: 93-109.
 * Karavaiev V. 1927. Übersicht der Ameisenfauna der Krim nebst einigen Neubeschreibungen. Konowia 5: 281-303.
 * Khalili-Moghadam A., L. Borowiec, and A. Nemati. 2019. New records of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from the Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari Province of Iran with taxonomic comments. Polish Journal of Entomology 88 (2): 163–182.
 * Marikovsky P. I. 1979. Ants of the Semireche Desert. [In Russian.]. Alma Ata: Nauka, 263 pp.
 * Pashaei Rad S., B. Taylor, R. Torabi, E. Aram, G. Abolfathi, R. Afshari, F. Borjali, M. Ghatei, F. Hediary, F. Jazini, V. Heidary Kiah, Z. Mahmoudi, F. Safariyan, and M. Seiri. 2018. Further records of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from Iran. Zoology in the Middle East 64(2): 145-159.
 * Pisarski B. 1967. Fourmis (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) d'Afghanistan récoltées par M. Dr. K. Lindberg. Annales Zoologici (Warsaw) 24: 375-425.
 * Salata S., and L. Borowiec. 2018. Taxonomic and faunistic notes on Greek ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Annals of the Upper Silesian Museum in Bytom Entomology 27: 1-51.
 * Schultz, R., A. G. Radchenko, and B. Seifert. "A critical checklist of the ants of Kyrgyzstan (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)." Myrmecologische Nachrichten 8 (2006): 201-207.
 * Seifert B. 2016. Inconvenient hyperdiversity – the traditional concept of “Pheidole pallidula” includes four cryptic species (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Soil Organisms 88(1): 1-17.
 * Tohme G., and H. Tohme. 2014. Nouvelles liste des especes de fourmis du Liban (Hymenoptera, Formicoidea). Lebanese Science Journal 15(1): 133-141.