BIOSYSTEMATIC REVISION OF EPIMYRMA KRAUSSEI, 
E. VAN DELI, AND E. FORELI 
(HYMENOPTERA: FORMICIDAE) 
By Alfred Buschinger 1 , Karl Fischer 1 , Hans-Peter Guthy 1 , 
Karla Jessen 1 , and Ursula Winter 2 
Introduction 
The myrmicine genus Epimyrma Emery 1915 presently comprises 
11 described species, inhabiting central and southern Europe and 
North Africa. They all are living as social parasites together with 
host species of the genus Leptothorax (subgenera Myrafant Smith 
1950 and Temnothorax Mayr 1861), some as active slavemakers, 
e.g. E. ravouxi (Andre 1896) (Winter 1979), others as “degenerate 
slavemakers” (£. kraussei Emery 1915 (Buschinger & Winter 1982)), 
and E. Corsica (Emery 1895) as a workerless permanent parasite 
(Buschinger & Winter 1985). 
The taxonomy of the genus is not yet completely consolidated. 
Thus, in the most recent revision, Kutter (1973) comes to the con- 
clusion that E. kraussei, E. vandeli Santschi 1927, and E. foreli 
Menozzi 1921, are so similar that a future comparison of larger 
series presumably would reveal their synonymy. It is the object of 
this paper to provide evidence for the accuracy of Kutter’s predic- 
tion. E. kraussei was described by 2 5$ and 1 ? (Emery 1915) from 
Sorgono, Sardegna. Menozzi (1921) established E. foreli on the 
basis of 4 colonies from the vicinity of Sambiase di Calabria, S ’Italy, 
and E. vandeli was described after 6 colonies collected by A. Vandel 
near Miramont-de-Quercy and Touffailles, Dept. Tarn-et-Garonne, 
in S’France (Santschi 1927, Vandel 1927). The most distinctive 
characters of the 3 species were slightly different shapes of the peti- 
oli, different grades of coloration from light, yellow-brown in E. 
foreli to a nearly black in E. vandeli, and the lack of $ $ in the latter 
as opposed to E. foreli and E. kraussei. 
’FB Biologie, Institut fur Zoologie, der Technischen Hochschule, Schnittspahnstr. 
3, D-6100 Darmstadt, FRG 
2 FB 2 (Biologie), Universitat Bremen, Postfach 330440, D-2800 Bremen, FRG 
Manuscript received by the editor December 23, 1985. 
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