Myrmecocystus altisquamis, E. Andre, 1881

Agosti, Donat, 1990, Review and reclassification of Cataglyphis (Hymenoptera, Formicidae), Journal of Natural History 24, pp. 1457-1505 : 1471-1472

altisquamis group

Diagnosis

Workers and females: Cataglyphis ants with the following diagnostic characters:

1. Petiole cuneiform (Fig. 10), if very low and pseudo-nodiform (Fig. 9) than El> 35 ( C.foreli , C.foreli ssp. oxianus ).

2. MPI <80; third maxillary palp-segment often distally thickened, davate.

3. Body uniform black to bicoloured with gaster blackish but head and alitrunk from black to bright red or whole body yellowish-brown; body surface never shining.

4. Head sculpture finely reticulate, sometimes with punctation on the frons.

5. Alitrunk length of large workers up to 5 mm.

Males: Cataglyphis ants with the following diagnostic characters:

1. Uniform black or with at least the apex of the gaster reddish or yellow.

2. Subgenital plate short (SPI <125); with two distal, lateral rounded processes and a median part which is variable but always present (Fig. 15).

3. Squamula caudally always projecting over the stipes, sometimes forming a distinct process pointing ventrally (Fig. 30).

4. Stipes without a basal median appendix (Fig. 30).

5. Volsella straight, broadest before midlength, distally divergent, truncated or pointed, never pediform (Fig. 50).

6. Sagitta apically with a depressed shield (Fig. 65); at least distal part of the serrated face curved laterally.

Distribution

The altisquamis species-group almost replaces the cursor species-group in the adjacent southern and drier parts of the palaearctic. No species of one species-group is known to be found in the same habitat as any species of the other. The range of this group is from Portugal and Morocco in the west to central Asia in the East. They are not recorded from north of the Mediterranean Sea, the North African deserts, Anatolia, Iran and along the southern and eastern borders of the central asiastic deserts. The species are present in hilly terrain or along the foothills and share the patchy distribution of those particular habitats. The southernmost limit of distribution of the group is the Assir mountains in Saudi Arabia where assirensis has been collected at 3000 m ( Collingwood, 1985).

Comments

The taxonomy of the altisquamis species-group is hardly known, and only recently have some efforts been made to clear the situation ( Collingwood, 1985; Tinaut, 1990; Agosti (unpublished). The male genitalia of all the species-complexes are very uniform and show only slight variation in shapes. The species complexes are based on worker morphology.

(i) altisquamis complex: uniform black workers with casual reddish-black spots on the head, occasional erect hairs on the alitrunk. Distribution: Middle East and Arabian peninsula.

(ii) foreli complex: workers with an El <35, dull, almost uniform dark reddish-black to black, petiole low and nearly nodiform. Distribution: Central Asia.

(iii) hispanicus complex: workers having long erect hairs all over the body and round pits in the otherwise reticulate sculpture of the frons, dull and often uniform dark reddish black; petiole cuneiform with the caudal face concave. There is a wide range of variation in pilosity and pubescence: from entirely pilose frontal femora to very sparse short pilosity of the ventral face; from a long thick pubescence on the gaster to a sparse, sometimes partitioned pubescence. There seems to be a morphocline from east to west within the Iberian peninsula, the Sierra Nevada populations including the least pilose specimen. Distribution; Iberian peninsula and Central Asia.

(iv) kurdistanicus complex: workers uniform yellowish-brown, sometimes the apex of the gaster darker; large workers with an elongate mandible but still with a row of denticles present. Distribution: Iraq.

(v) mauritanicus complex: bicoloured workers with a red head and alitrunk and a black gaster, without or only with occasional erect hairs on the dorsum of the alitrunk, and at least short bristles on the ventral surface of the frontal femora; petiole always cuneiform. These species are rarely collected except velox (which varies in head coloration from bright red (above 1000 m altitude) to dull red (usually below 800 m) and in pilosity ( Tinaut, 1990) and mauritanicus in northern Africa. Distribution: Lebanon mountains, North Africa, Iberian peninsula.

The biology of the ants of this species group is virtually unknown. In Tunisia they sometimes occur in the same habitats as species of the bicolor group (Wehner, personal communication). Observations of altisquamis in Suweida (Syria), showed that this species is fast-running in columns of ten and more workers.