Dry grass knot ant
| Dry grass knot ant | ||||||||||||
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Dry grass knot ant ( Myrmica scabrinodis ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Myrmica scabrinodis | ||||||||||||
| Nylander , 1846 |
The dry grass knot ant ( Myrmica scabrinodis ) is an ant from the subfamily of knot ants (Myrmicinae). Despite its common German name, it rarely occurs on dry grassy areas.
features
The workers are reddish-brown in color and measure 3.5 to 5 millimeters. The entire body surface shows a clear longitudinal furrow. The scapus of the antennae is sharply angled at the base. The top of the petiolus slopes backwards and forms a distinct step near the connection to the postpetiolus. The sex animals are darker in color than the workers. The males are between 5 and 6 millimeters long. Your scapus is short and thick with a curve at the base. They are also very hairy. The queens have a body length between 5 and 6.5 millimeters, otherwise they are designed similar to the workers.
distribution and habitat
The distribution area extends over all of Central Europe . In Northern Europe it occurs up to the 68th parallel. The species is quite common, but difficult to observe because of its hidden way of life and the lack of individuals. Myrmica scabrinodis prefers well-sunlit and not too tall lawn or fringing biotopes, but only in exceptional cases dry grass . It avoids closed forests as well as high grass meadows and herbaceous vegetation and is rarely found in the vicinity of or in human settlements. High population densities are reached in open peat moss lawns of moors .
Way of life
This polygyne ant forms colonies with around two to five queens and a few hundred workers. A nest contains an average of 600 workers, but the average varies between 300 and 1,200 depending on the habitat. They are only aggressive when defending the nest. The sex animals swarm between the end of July and the middle of September from around 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., mostly in humid weather conditions and calm.
In their nest the caterpillars of some species of bluetooth often hibernate , such as the light blue-headed ant bluebird ( Phengaris teleius ), where the moth caterpillars live predatory on ants. Myrmica scabrinodis is used in bogs as a host for hover flies of the species Microdon myrmicae .
Systematics
The species is divided into the following subspecies :
- Myrmica scabrinodis scabrinodis Nylander , 1846
- Myrmica scabrinodis scabrinodosabuleti Sadil , 1951
Synonyms
The following synonyms for Myrmica scabrinodis are known from the literature :
- Myrmica pilosiscapus Bondroit
- Myrmica scabrinodis var. Rugulosoides Forel
- Myrmica scabrinodis var. Ahngeri Karavaiev
swell
Individual evidence
- ^ Bernhard Seifert: A taxonomic revision of the Myrmica species of Europe, Asia Minor, and Caucasia . Treatises and reports of the Natural History Museum Görlitz 62, 1-75 (1988). ( Full text )
- ↑ Heiko Bellmann : bees, wasps, ants. Hymenoptera of Central Europe . Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-440-09690-4
- ↑ a b c Bernhard Seifert : The ants of Central and Northern Europe . lutra Verlags- und Vertriebsgesellschaft, Görlitz / Tauer 2007, ISBN 978-3-936412-03-1
- ↑ State Office for Environmental Protection and Occupational Safety Saarland (Ed.): Maculinea teleius. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 23, 2012 ; Retrieved May 21, 2007 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ List of host ant species for blue ant species
- ^ Myrmica scabrinodis (Nylander 1846). Fauna Europaea, accessed July 18, 2008 .
- ^ Myrmica scabrinodis (Nylander, 1846). www.formicidae.be, accessed July 18, 2008 .
Web links
- AntWeb images of Myrmica scabrinodis