Abstract
This study reports the occurrence of the ant cricket Myrmecophilus orientalis Stalling, 2010 on the Dodecanese Islands Kos and Tilos, Greece. This is the first evidence of M. orientalis from Greece and Europe. The species lives in ant nests under stones and in dead wood in open scrubland and pine forests. The adults were found in the nests of large Camponotus species, while the juveniles were found in the nests of small ant species of the genera Crematogaster and Lepisiota. We assumed that the species changes the host ant species during its life cycle.
Highlights
Ant crickets are small crickets that live as guests in the nests of ants
The genus Myrmecophilus has an almost cosmopolitan distribution, and to date, 10 species are known from Europe
The recent findings from Greece and a specimen of M. orientalis deposited in the collection of the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien (Austria) from the western part of Turkey (Dalyan, Muğla Province) show that the distribution area of M. orientalis extends much further to the west than hitherto known
Summary
Ant crickets (genus Myrmecophilus Berthold, 1827) are small crickets that live as guests in the nests of ants. The genus Myrmecophilus has an almost cosmopolitan distribution, and to date, 10 species are known from Europe. Ant nests were checked for the presence of Myrmecophilus on the island of Kos, Greece, in May 2018.
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