13. Myrmica spinosior Santschi 1931

The distribution of the W Mediterranean M. spinosior in Italy is unclear outside Sardinia (Seifert 2005; Radchenko & Elmes, 2010; Schifani et al., 2021b). A recent record from Sicily (Etna) by Blatrix et al. (2020) shall be considered doubtful: its morphological identity as either M. sabuleti or M. spinosior was uncertain (Blatrix, pers. comm.), and no clear identification could be obtained in a DNA barcoding approach, which appears highly unreliable for the scabrinodis species-group (Blatrix et al., 2020). At present, we confidently confirm the following three Myrmica species from Sicily: M. lobulicornis, the relatively widespread M. sabuleti, and the endemic M. siciliana Radchenko et al. 2006 from Etna, Nebrodi and Madonie (Radchenko et al., 2006; Schifani & Alicata, 2018; authors’ unpublished data).