''Tetramorium atratulum'' is a rare workerless socially parasitic ant from the

Palaearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

region, which has even been introduced together with its host in North America. This extreme

inquiline In zoology, an inquiline (from Latin ''inquilinus'', "lodger" or "tenant") is an animal that lives commensally in the nest, burrow, or dwelling place of an animal of another species. For example, some organisms such as insects may live in the h ...

is represented only by female and pupoid type male individuals, whose

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines *Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts *Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies, ...

and anatomy indicate a highly specialized level of parasitism. The body of males is depigmentated, the cuticle is thin, the petiole and postpetiole are widely connected, and degenerate

mandibles In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower tooth, teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movabl ...

palp Pedipalps (commonly shortened to palps or palpi) are the second pair of appendages of chelicerates – a group of arthropods including spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, and sea spiders. The pedipalps are lateral to the chelicerae ("jaws") and ...

s, and antennae are observed. Female wing venation is reduced and the occipital region is narrowed. Mature females are typically physogastric and found in queenless host nests. Since, unlike many other obligate social parasites, ''T. atratulum'' is never known to coexist with the host colony's fertile queen, every ''T. atratulum''–''Tetramorium'' sp. colony is doomed to survive only the lifespan of the youngest ''Tetramorium'' sp. workers. Thus, the parasitic queen has very limited scope for producing alates to secure the next generation, as this time span is often only 2–3 years or fewer. As a result, even within its well-established range, ''T. atratulum'' is very scarce, with only a tiny proportion of ''Tetramorium'' sp. colonies playing host to this parasite.

Distribution

Its distribution is local over Eurosiberia and eastern parts of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, broadly following that of its hosts. It is present but local in southern parts of

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

, having first been discovered in the UK by H. St. J. K. Donisthorpe and W. C. Crawley on July 23, 1912 in the

New Forest The New Forest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in Southern England, covering southwest Hampshire and southeast Wiltshire. It was proclaimed a royal forest by William the Conqueror, featu ...

Hosts

Although ''T. atratulum'' was reported previously mainly in ''

Tetramorium caespitum ''Tetramorium caespitum'', also known as the pavement ant, is a species of ant in the family Formicidae. References Tetramorium Ants described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{ant-stub ...

'' and '' T. impurum'' nests, and was recently found in a nest of '' T. immigrans'' (species within the ''Tetramorium caespitum''/''impurum'' complex), it was also recorded from

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

(Italy) from a nontypical low altitude (300 m) in a nest of '' T. diomedeum'', which is a member of the '' Tetramorium ferox'' complex. Future clarification of the complicated taxonomic composition of the ''Tetramorium caespitum''/''impurum'' complex will probably enlarge the number of known host ant species parasitized by ''T. atratulum''. The only report about '' T. chefketi'' as a host of ''T. atratulum'' was given by Schulz & Sanetra (2002) as an amendment of the identified material published by Heinze (1987) from

Tavşanlı Tavşanlı is a town and district of Kütahya Province in the Aegean region of Turkey. Tavşanlı is a typical Aegean town where a government-owned coal mine company attracted thousands of settlers from surrounding cities and villages which mad ...

(Turkey,

Kütahya Kütahya () (historically, Cotyaeum or Kotyaion, Ancient Greek, Greek: Κοτύαιον) is a city in western Turkey which lies on the Porsuk River, Porsuk river, at 969 metres above sea level. It is inhabited by some 578,640 people (2022 estimate) ...

district). '' Tetramorium moravicum'' was also mentioned in Sanetra & Buschinger (2000) as a possible host of ''T. atratulum'', but without any additional data and references.

References

* * *

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q308865 atratulum Hymenoptera of Europe Hymenoptera of North America Insects described in 1852