Abstract
It is commonly held that Central Europe harbours but a single harvester ant species, namely Messor structor. Recently dis- covered bionomic differences between two Central European populations, which may reflect interspecific variation, cast doubt on this assumption. In the present study we test alternative hypotheses - one versus two harvester ant species in Central Europe and adjacent regions - by investigating the genetic diversity of ants determined as M. structor or close to it (M. cf. structor). Sequences of the mitochondrial COI gene revealed two major lineages of different but partially overlapping geographic distributions, both occurring in Central Europe. The existence of a cryptic species within M. cf. structor is the most plausible interpretation, since the sequence divergence between the two major lineages equals those between M. capitatus, M. concolor and M. bouvieri. The phy- logenetic analyses revealed a distinct substructuring for both of the detected major lineages and the possible existence of additional cryptic species.
Highlights
The myrmicine harvester ant genus Messor is mainly distributed in the Palearctic region (Bolton, 1982; Agosti & Collingwood, 1987; Cagniant & Espadaler, 1997). Bolton (1995) lists 105 recognized species worldwide
All phylogenetic analyses (Fig. 1) revealed that A. iberica was closer to the ingroup (M. cf. structor, M. bouvieri, M. concolor and M. capitatus) than M. chamberlini and M. lobognathus
The order of divergence of M. capitatus, M. concolor and M. bouvieri was differently resolved by NJ/MP and BMCMC analyses
Summary
The myrmicine harvester ant genus Messor is mainly distributed in the Palearctic region (Bolton, 1982; Agosti & Collingwood, 1987; Cagniant & Espadaler, 1997). Bolton (1995) lists 105 recognized species worldwide. The myrmicine harvester ant genus Messor is mainly distributed in the Palearctic region (Bolton, 1982; Agosti & Collingwood, 1987; Cagniant & Espadaler, 1997). Bolton (1995) lists 105 recognized species worldwide. At the beginning of the last century there were a series of taxonomic revisions (Santschi, 1917, 1923, 1927; Kuznetzov-Ugamsky, 1927; Finzi, 1929). Since modern taxonomists have conducted only partial revisions, which are confined to particular geographic regions or to certain species groups (e.g., Arnol’di, 1977; Bolton, 1982). Bezdeþka (1996) and Werner & Bezdeþka (2001) list Messor muticus (Nylander, 1849), which is currently regarded as a junior synonym of M. structor (Atanassov & Dlussky, 1992; Table 1), and Markó & CsĘsz (2002) record M. muticus, in addition to M. structor, for Hungary. M. structor, which was originally described from
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