Lasius brevipalpus, Seifert, 2020

Seifert, Bernhard, 2020, A taxonomic revision of the Palaearctic members of the subgenus Lasius s. str. (Hymenoptera, Formicidae), Soil Organisms 92 (1), pp. 15-86 : 57-58

4.4.16 Lasius brevipalpus sp. nov.

Etymology. The name refers to the short terminal segment of maxillary palp.

Type material. Holotype plus 5 paratype workers on three pins labelled ”KAZ: 47.42.21N, 85.00E 496 m, feucht-salzige Artemisia-Steppe leg, Seifert 2001.07.25 -81“, 12 paratype workers on four pins with the same locality label but sample No 73, 73b and 212; depository SMN Görlitz.

All material examined. A total of 5 nest samples with 12 workers from Kazakhstan were subject to NUMOBAT investigation. For details see supplementary information SI1.

Geographic range. Only known from the type locality at 47.7058°N, 85.3000°E, 496 m.

Biology. The type locality is a staggered array of very shallow sand dunes with very poor herb layer that change with rather humid Artemisia steppe in deeper parts of the area. Four samples were collected from sandy soil in humid parts of the site and one sample from a sand dune.

Diagnosis ( Tab. 3 , Figs. 31 –32; key):

Small-sized (CS 812 µm). Large head and scape length indices are contrasted by a small palp length index (CL/ CW 900 1.084, SL/CS 900 1.004, MP6/CS 900 0.153). Torulo-clypeal distance and number of mandibular dents medium (dClAn 900 4.46, MaDe 900 8.53). Length of frontal pubescence hairs rather large (PLF 900 32.1), clypeal pubescence dilute (sqPDCL 900 4.99). Setae numbers on whole body small but pronotal setae long (nOcc 900 9.0, nGen 900 2.3, nGu 900 2.3, nSc 900 4.6, nHT 900 6.2, PnHL/ CS 900 0.162). Setae on dorsal plane of scape rather short, most of these protruding close to counting threshold of 20 µm which explains the variance of nSc counts. Coloration: whole body concolorous medium brown to light yellowish-brown; antennae, tibiae and tarsae pale yellowish brown.

Comments. The next relatives of this species are unclear due to its controversial character combination. There is no species in Asia combining long scape, short terminal segment of maxillary palps, long pronotal setae and low gular setae numbers.

Figures

Figs. 31 and 32: Lasius brevipalpus sp. nov.; holotype