Abstract
A worker-like female of Myrmica sabuleti (Meinert, 1861), pitfall-trapped near Jena, Germany, in late summer 2016, was infested by five postparasitic juvenile mermithids. They poked out of the ant´s gaster as a trail of seven filaments of various lengths. Apart from its swollen gaster, the ant differed from conspecifics in several morphometric parameters. Using both morphological and molecular techniques, the parasite family Mermithidae was confirmed. Our stray find raises multiple questions concerning the genus and species identity of the parasite, its biology, and the infestation rate of the host ant population. More mermithid awareness by the various researchers working with Myrmica will help, but directed fieldwork, experimental life-history research, and molecular studies are needed to emancipate progress in ant-mermithid research from serendipity.
Highlights
Nematodes of 10 families are known as ant parasites worldwide, with Mermithidae as the largest and most conspicuous one
There are six Myrmica species known from Central Europe (Seifert, 2018) to which the nematode host might possibly belong: M. sabuleti, M. bibikoffi, M. scabrinodis, M. lonae Finzi, 1926, M. vandeli Bondroit, 1920, and M. curvithorax Bondroit, 1920
Regarding the former two species, normal workers of Myrmica sabuleti without teratological or parasite-induced changes of morphology are separable from its temporary social parasite Myrmica bibikoffi by different removal of allometric variance (RAV)-corrected body ratios
Summary
Nematodes of 10 families are known as ant parasites worldwide, with Mermithidae as the largest and most conspicuous one (summarized by Poinar, 1975; Poinar, 2012). They occasionally can be found either by dissecting the gaster of a host ant or because they attract attention when leaving their host. Wheeler (1928) distinguished three discrete aberrant forms of female infested ants, mermithergates (resembling workers), gynaecoid mermithergates (intermorphs), and mermithogynes (resembling gynes). A single mermithid per ant occurs, densely coiled up within the gaster
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