Abstract
In Taiwan, the ant genus Strumigenys is represented by 13 species, nine of which being endemic to this island. Classic morphological taxonomy can be complex and may lead to equivoque identification within this group. To clarify subtle species assignments, we investigated the venom composition of five Strumigenys species, using SPME extraction and GC/MS analyses, and searched for a suitable chemical marker. Our results indicate that three out of the five species tested showed enough specificity in their chemical profiles to allow clear differentiation. However, the two remaining species could not be distinguished from each other on the basis of their venom composition. We further assessed the phylogenetic relationships between the five species, analyzing both morphological and chemical characters. Our clusters revealed congruency between some species associations and suggested that the analysis of venom composition may apply, at least partially, to Strumigenys chemosystematics. However, important discrepancies also appeared, signifying that selective pressures for chemical diversification have operated differentially during the speciation and dispersal processes within this genus inTaiwan.
Highlights
The myrmicine ant tribe Dacetini includes 9 genera and about 872 species largely distributed in the tropical and subtropical areas (Bolton, 2000)
Placed at the root of the clustering, S .formosensis appears distinct from the other four species. Our results match those obtained by Lin (1998), who, analyzing a total 12 Taiwanese and 5 Japanese Strumigenys ants, classified these five species in three different groups, but in a slightly different way: the two species S. solifontis and S. liukueiensis were identically clustered in a same solifontis group, confirming their close phylogenetic relation, whereas S. chuchihensis was included in their sister lewisi group
In their description of the newlydiscovered S. chuchihensis, Lin & Wu (2001) considered this species closely related to those of the godeffroyi group, which includes, among others, S. minutula, S. solifontis and S. luikueiensis while S. formosensis was included in the mayri sister group of Strumigenys species (Bolton, 2000)
Summary
The myrmicine ant tribe Dacetini includes 9 genera and about 872 species largely distributed in the tropical and subtropical areas (Bolton, 2000). Strumigenys and Pyramica are the most speciose genera, containing 90% of total species (Bolton, 2000). Lin) indicate that they hardly contain more than 200 individuals in laboratory and that some species may be polygynous. Because of their minute size and cryptic habits, field collections proved hazardous and some species are described from one specimen only (Lin, 1998; Lin & Wu, 2001).
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