Aphaenogaster sangiorgii ( Emery, 1901 )

Schifani, Enrico & Alicata, Antonio, 2023, Nomenclatural changes on some Mediterranean Aphaenogaster Mayr, 1853 taxa (Hymenoptera, Formicidae), Zootaxa 5277 (1), pp. 59-70 : 64-65

Aphaenogaster sangiorgii ( Emery, 1901)

= A. finzii M̧ller, 1921 syn. nov.

= A. radchenkoi Kiran & Tezcan, 2008 syn. nov.

Investigated material— Aphaenogaster sangiorgii : 1♀, Kefalonia, Ionian Islands, Greece, D. Sangiorgi legit ( MSNG) ( A. sangiorgii holotype); 1♀, W. Argolida near Karia, Peloponnese, Greece, 37.62867, 22.54787, 2.IX.2013, L. Borowiec legit ( CAS); 12♀♀, Pallagorio, Calabria, Italy, 39.321814, 16.916941, 15.IV.2016 and 13.IV.2018, Alicata legit ( AAPC) (as A. finzii in Schifani & Alicata 2019); 10♀♀, San Nicola dell’Alto, Calabria, Italy, 39.290411, 16.980319, 5.IV.2019, G. Sabella & D. Misfud legit ( AAPC, ESPC) (as A. finzii in Schifani & Alicata 2019; Schifani et al. 2022); 1♀, 1♀, Žegar, Croatia, P. Novak legit ( MSNT) ( A. finzii type series, photos in Schifani & Alicata 2019 and in Fig. 3 ).

Aphaenogaster sangiorgii ( Emery, 1901) was originally described from a single queen specimen collected in Greece ( Emery 1901, see CASENT0904171). The description provided by Emery (1901) is especially detailed for the standards of that time, nonetheless, the name was almost completely neglected in the subsequent literature. Workers or males of this species have never been described, and the species was never recorded from other sites. Aphaenogaster sangiorgii was never classified into any of the species groups, as its identity was considered uncertain ( Schifani et al. 2022).

By investigating the holotype queen of A. sangiorgii , it was possible to determine safely its status as a member of the pallida group by the combination of very long and abundant hairs, shiny integument, and characteristic pigmentation (see Schifani et al. 2022). On the other hand, its long spines, are a character of only two other taxa within the group, which are recorded in the Balkans and Ţrkyie: A. finzii M̧ller, 1921 and A. radchenkoi Kiran & Tezcan, 2008 (Schifani & Alicata 2019; Borowiec et al. 2019). Aphaenogaster finzii was first described from Croatia based on workers and its queen was described soon after (M̧ller 1921; M̧ller 1923). It was later recorded in the rest of the Balkans south to Greece and in southern Italy (M̧ller 1921; Salata & Borowiec 2018b; Schifani & Alicata 2019), but it has never been compared with A. sangiorgii .

A. radchenkoi was described from Ţrkyie based on both workers and queens and was not compared with either A. sangiorgii or A. finzii , but only with the short-spined pallida group species A. subterraneoides ( Kiran et al. 2008; Borowiec et al. 2019). Later, Borowiec et al. (2019) recorded it in Bulgaria proposing a hypothetical distinction based on subtle differences in the shape of the spines of workers. In qualitative terms, the morphology of A. sangiorgii queen is identical to that of the A. finzii queen specimens in M̧ller’s collection, and there is no difference compared to the description of A. radchenkoi ( Kiran et al. 2008; Fig. 3 ). Therefore, based on morphological evidence and congruent biogeography A. sangiorgii is established as the senior synonym of both A. finzii and A. radchenkoi .

Figures

FIGURE 3. Queens of Aphaenogaster sangiorgii. A,B: Italian specimen labeled as A. finzii in Giuseppe M̧ller collection at the Natural History Museum of Trieste (photo by Silvia Rocio Castro-Delgado). C,D: holotype specimen of A. sangiorgii from Greece (CASENT0904171, photo by Z. Lieberman, available on www.antweb.org).