Temnothorax affinis
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Temnothorax affinis |
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| ( Mayr , 1855) |
Temnothorax affinis is one of the most common strictly arboreal antsin Germany. However, due to its small size and the fact that it spends most of its life in the treetop, this species is often overlooked.
features
The workers reach a size of 2.3 to 3.5 mm - the queens are about 3.5-4.7 mm and the males: 2.5 to 3.2 mm. Temnothorax affinis is the 'most colorful' native Temnothorax species. The head and antenna lobes are dark, the thorax reddish-yellow, Gaster brown-yellow curled across, thighs dark and the rest of the legs light. There are numerous possibilities of confusion with other Temnothorax species.
Like all members of the knot ants (Myrmicinae), workers and queens are equipped with a poison sting , the sting of which causes unpleasant pain, but is usually harmless. There may be an allergy risk .
ecology
T. affinis can be expected in all relatively warm habitats in Germany. According to Seifert (2007) it is only absent in Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and is otherwise found in all of Germany. It can be assumed everywhere that it was often underestimated because of the arboricolous way of life.
T. affinis needs trees or hedges with sufficient sunlight. The species often finds this in orchards, but it also likes to nest in walnut, cherry, oak, pine or blackberry. In the nests, which usually contain fewer than 100 workers, there is only one queen ( monogyne nests). There can be several nests on a tree. B. give up to 100 nests on a 15 meter high oak.
The ants swarm in July-August and the nest is founded claustrally in dead branches or under bark on trees. T.affinis feeds heavily zoophag . Honeydew hosed down is also taken up.
The species is not very aggressive and therefore subordinate in the dominance hierarchy. But it also occurs on trees that other ants have walked on by avoiding confrontations. Workers lay individual-specific scent traces, i.e. traces that, like a thread, only lead the individual back into the nest or to the destination who laid the trace himself. T. affinis can be the host species for the slave-keeping Myrmoxenus ravouxi , which then also lives on trees.
Synonyms
Earlier it was Temnothorax affinis as Leptothorax affinis called, now belongs to the genus but Temnothorax .
swell
- Bernhard Seifert: The ants of Central and Northern Europe. lutra Verlags- und Vertriebsgesellschaft, Görlitz / Tauer 2007, ISBN 978-3-936412-03-1
