Myrmica trinodis Losana, 1834

Bernhard Seifert, 2016, Inconvenient hyperdiversity - the traditional concept of “ PheIdole pallIdula ” includes four cryptic species (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), Soil Organisms 88 (1), pp. 1-18 : 14

Myrmica trinodis Losana, 1834 [Incertae Sedis]

This taxon was described as an ‘indigenous ant species of Piemonte’, Italy and to occur there in gardens. Losana’s morphological description of a very slender ant is contradictory and puzzling (three waist segments are given both in the verbal description and are also depicted in the drawing!). Types are unknown and presumed of being lost. It is unintelligble on which basis this name could be considered by Roger (1863) and Bolton (2015) as a junior synonym of the holotropical tramp species Pheidole megacephala (Fabricius 1793) that differs considerably and should not occur in Piemonte. Without types, the only reasonable decision is allocation to Incertae Sedis.