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SUBFAMILY FORMICINAE - Genus Plagiolepis - Plagiolepis (Plagiolepis) pygmaea (Latreille)

Plagiolepis Mayr sensu stricto

Plagiolepis (Plagiolepis) pygmaea (Latreille)

return to key  Type location France (Formica pygmaea, Latreille, 1798: 45, worker & queen; Schenck, 1852: 69, male) - no images on Antweb (March 2019)
subspecies
bulawayensis (Plagiolepis pygmaea Latreille var. bulawayensis n. v., Arnold, 1922: 601, worker & queen) from Zimbabwe, Bulawayo - see below
mima (Plagiolepis pygmaea Latreille var. mima n. v., Arnold, 1922: 602, worker) from Zimbabwe, Hillside, Bulawayo, G Arnold - no images on Antweb (March 2019)
minu (Plagiolepis pygmaea Latreille var. Minu n. v., Forel, 1911d: 350, worker) from Greece, Aivaly - see below
worker and queen only known (see Bolton, 1995) .


{Plagiolepis pygmaea} Latreille (1802c: 183) reiterated his description, this is at {original description}. Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau (1835: 195) gave a description, this is at {original description}. Arnold (1922: 600 ff), citing Latreille's (1798) description, gave a full description; that plus his descriptions of bulawayensis and mima is at {original description}. Santschi (1920g) made a study of pygmaea and its close relatives; the pygmaea description is at {original description}. Emery (1921d) made a study of the pygmaea group of Mediterranean species; this is at - {short description of image}. Presumably, it post-dated Arnold's (1922) work on Plagiolepis species. Emery regarded pygmaea as the species from around the Mediterranean and a group from South Africa. It seems possible that more precise study would lead to both bulawayensis and mima being raised to full species status.

Karavaiev (1931a: 309ff) considered pygmaea specimens from Palermo, Sicily, and what now is the species taurica (Plagiolepis maura var taurica, Santschi, 1920g: 171, worker; raised to species Radchenko, 1989b: 155) from Ukraine. Karavaiev's text is at {original description}.

Specimens from the type collections of bulawayensis and mima are shown at the bottom of this page. Whereas bulawayensis appears close to the dark form from the Mediterranean area, minu clearly is either a separate species or a form of one of the other African species.


{Plagiolepis pygmaea} {Plagiolepis pygmaea} {Plagiolepis pygmaea alitrunk}


{Plagiolepis pygmaea antenna} {Plagiolepis pygmaea}

{Plagiolepis pygmaea minu}The photomontage of the type worker of minu is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0909856


Oxford University Museum specimens

Plagiolepis (Plagiolepis) pygmaea
B Taylor det.

Egypt
M Sharaf


6.iii.2003
Zaranik
30°39' N
34°26' E
North Sinai
1
{album}

{Plagiolepis pygmaea}The photomontage is of a specimen from Egypt, Abumadi Zaranik, North Sinai, 34°26' E, 30°39' N, collected by Mostafa Sharaf, 6.iii.2003


{Plagiolepis pygmaea}The photomontage is of a specimen from Iran, Azadi Park, Shiraz, collected by Roshanak Torabi (23).


{Plagiolepis pygmaea}}The photomontage is of specimens from Portugal, collected on 8.iv.2008 in heavily degraded scrubland, dominated by Acacia dealbata, Cistus salvifolius and Pistacia lenticularis, foraging on the Acacia. The site is south of Lisbon, approximately 5km inland, at W 9°11'30", N 38°,38',8", collector Markus Eichhorn and students.


{Plagiolepis pygmaea}The photomontage is of a worker from Mallorca, the original can be seen on the WWW.hormigas.org website, and shows the dark colour of the southern European pygmaea.


{Plagiolepis pygmaea bulawayensis}The photomontage of a syntype worker of bulawayensis is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0903145

©2005, 2006, 2015, 2019 - Brian Taylor CBiol FRSB FRES
11, Grazingfield, Wilford, Nottingham, NG11 7FN, U.K.

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