CHALEPOXENUS BRUNNEUS, A WORKERLESS 
“DEGENERATE SLAVE-MAKER” ANT 
(HYMENOPTERA, FORMICIDAE) 
By Alfred Buschinger 1 , Henri Cagniant 2 , Werner Ehrhardt 1 , 
AND JORGEN HEINZE 1 
Chalepoxenus is a genus of parasitic ants with several closely 
related species mainly occurring around the Mediterranean (Busch- 
inger et al., 1988). C. kutteri and C. muellerianus as well as C. 
insubricus and C. siciliensis (the latter two presumably synonymous 
to C.m.) are actively dulotic species having a considerable worker- 
force and enslaving several Leptothorax species (Ehrhardt 1982, 
1987). Their sexuals engage in essentially normal mating flights, and 
new colonies are founded through single queens who penetrate a 
host nest, kill all adults by stinging them, or drive them off, and take 
over the broods from which the first slaves emerge. 
Little has been known on the life history of C. brunneus, however. 
The species was described (Cagniant 1985) after a number of males 
and females which emerged in laboratory culture from a colony of 
Leptothorax cf. marocanus Santschi. This colony had been col- 
lected near the pass road to Tizi-n'-Test, 2000 m, in the Great Atlas of 
Morocco. 
During a second visit to the type locality by A.B., H.C., J.H. and 
X. Espadaler on 6 May 1987, a total of 11 colonies with queens 
and/or sexual pupae of C. brunneus was collected. Subsequent 
laboratory observations revealed that this species is in fact worker- 
less, and that the young queens are accepted by most of the adult 
host colony workers. Apparently C. brunneus has reached the stage 
of a “degenerate slavemaker”, convergently to some species of the 
genus Epimyrma (Buschinger, in press). 
Materials and Methods 
The colonies of C. brunneus and its host species were found 
beneath flat rocks in the soil and debris. The fairly complete socie- 
ties were aspirated into vials, and carried back to Germany in PVC 
•Institut fur Zoologie, Technische Hochschule Darmstadt, FRG 
2 Universite Paul Sabatier, F-3I062 Toulouse, France 
Manuscript received by the editor September 24, 1988. 
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