Leptothorax melanocephalus

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Palaearctic Region: France.

Nomenclature

 *  melanocephalus. Leptothorax melanocephalus Emery, 1870: 197 (w.) FRANCE (Corsica).
 * As unavailable (infrasubspecific) name: Emery & Forel, 1879: 458.
 * Subspecies of tuberum: André, 1883a: 298; Forel, 1890a: lxxiv; Emery, 1891b: 5; Dalla Torre, 1893: 128; Emery, 1914d: 158; Santschi, 1919e: 242; Ceballos, 1956: 307.
 * Junior synonym of nigriceps: Forel, 1874: 102 (in list).
 * Junior synonym of tuberum: Casevitz-Weulersse, 1990c: 420; Bolton, 1995b: 241; Casevitz-Weulersse & Galkowski, 2009: 496; Borowiec, L. 2014: 192.
 * Status as species: Bondroit, 1920a: 154; Baroni Urbani, 1971c: 115; Collingwood, 1978: 70; Agosti & Collingwood, 1987b: 276 (in key); Atanassov & Dlussky, 1992: 138; Lapeva-Gjonova, et al. 2010: 23; Radchenko, 2016: 223.

Taxonomic Notes
Salata & Borowiec (2019): Results presented by Prebus (2017) suggest that the tuberum species group (sensu Cagniant and Espadaler 1997) and unifasciatus species group (sensu Bernard 1967) are paraphyletic. In both cases species groups were deﬁned based on West-Mediterranean taxa. Only two Greek members of the tuberum species group were included in analysis presented by Prebus (2017): Temnothorax nigriceps and Temnothorax unifasciatus and they created a separate cluster. Conﬁrmation, if the tuberum species group as deﬁned by us here is a natural, monophyletic group requires further studies.

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

 * Antarea (at www.antarea.fr on June 11th 2017)
 * Karaman M. G. 2011. A catalogue of the ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) of Montenegro. Podgorica: Catalogues 3, Volume 2, Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts, 140 pp.
 * 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.