First observation of an ant colony of Formica fuscocinerea Forel, 1874 invaded by the social parasite F. truncorum Fabricius, 1804 (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

By

Neumeyer, Rainer
Sommerhalder, Jürg
Ungricht, Stefan

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2021-6-2

Original Publication

Metabarcoding and metagenomics

Volume

5

Pages

23--26

Subjects

Central Europe , northern Alps , social insects , temporary social parasitism , Urban ecology

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers 2017-

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/alpento.5.67037

 

Abstract

In the northern Alps of Switzerland we observed a mixed ant colony of Formica truncorum Fabricius, 1804 and F. fuscocinerea Forel, 1874 at the foot of a schoolhouse wall in the built-up centre of the small town of Näfels (canton of Glarus). Based on the fact that the habitat is favorable only for F. fuscocinerea and that F. truncorum is a notorious temporary social parasite, we conclude that in this case a colony of F. fuscocinerea must have been usurped by F. truncorum. This is remarkable, as it is the first reported case where a colony of F. fuscocinerea has been taken over by a social parasite. We consider the observed unusually small workers of F. truncorum to be a starvation form. This is probably due to the suboptimal urban nest site, as this species typically occurs along the edge of forests or in clearings.