Tetramorium chefketi

Sz, Sándor Cs Ő, Radchenko, Alexander & Schulz, Andreas, 2007, Taxonomic revision of the Palaearctic Tetramorium chefketi species complex (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), Zootaxa 1405, pp. 1-38 : 5-8

Definition of chefketi species complex

Species belonging to the T. chefketi species complex can be defined by the following combination of characters:

Workers

a) polygonal striae are continuous on 1st gastral tergite, and is sometimes microreticulate basally. Polygonal striation: interstices marked by feeble anastomosing striae (Fig. 8.), compare to microreticulation: interstices marked by very feeble elevated structures, like rugulae (Fig. 6, 7.);

b) head, alitrunk and waist coarsely sculptured, dorsum of petiolar node and postpetiole coarsely rugose and/ or reticulate.

c) petiole and postpetiole relatively narrow (CS/PEW and CS/PPW, Table 1 );

d) ground surface on the frons is usually coarsely microreticulate;

Gynes

e) alitrunk is low, dorsum is flattened in profile;

f) scutum in dorsal view is somewhat narrowed anteriorly and does not cover completely the pronotum, humeri are well visible;

g) head, alitrunk and waist are coarsely sculptured, and petiole and postpetiole dorsum coarsely rugose or/ and reticulate;

h) polygonal striae disrupted on 1st first gastral tergite, sometimes microreticulate basally;

i) mandibles are longitudinally striate;

j) petiole and postpetiole are relatively narrow (WAIST, Table 2 );

Males

k) head and alitrunk with usually coarsely sculpture, ground surface microreticulate; l) sides of petiole and postpetiole not angulate as in the ferox species complex (in dorsal view); m) first gastral tergite usually smooth and shiny, or feebly striate;

n) stipes of genitalia blunt, curved inwards at the top, with flattened apical plate (in caudal view);

We placed the following species into the chefketi species complex:

1) Tetramorium alternans Santschi, 1929

Tetramorium biskrensis kahenae Menozzi, 1934 new synonymy

2) Tetramorium anatolicum Csősz & Schulz , new species 3) Tetramorium annectens Pisarski, 1969 status revised

alternans anatolicum annectens chefketi moravicum sanetrai sulcinode (n=5) (n=3) (n=1) (n=11) (n=12) (n=3) (n=3) 4) Tetramorium chefketi Forel, 1911

Tetramorium caespitum var. sarkissiani Forel, 1911 new synonymy Tetramorium turcomanicum Santschi, 1921 new synonymy Tetramorium taurocaucasicum Arnoldi, 1968 new synonymy Tetramorium forte Forel, 1904 [in part, only material from Crimea and Caucasus] (for details of

clarification of synonymy see Taxonomic notes under Tetramorium chefketi )

5) Tetramorium exile Csősz & Radchenko , new species

6) Tetramorium moravicum Kratochvíl, 1941

Tetramorium rhenanum Schulz, 1996

7) Tetramorium rhodium Emery, 1922 status revised

8) Tetramorium sanetrai Schulz & Csősz , new species

9) Tetramorium sulcinode Santschi, 1927 status revised

Tetramorium karakalense Dlussky & Zabelin, 1985 new synonymy

10) Tetramorium syriacum Emery, 1922

The newly defined chefketi species complex may not strictly reflect the phylogenetic relationship of the above­mentioned species. T. sulcinode and T. annectens possess several autapomorphic characters (e.g. relatively large eyes and a long psammophore) what probably may lead to place them into a separate group in a future.

Tables

TABLE 1. Morphometric comparison (mm) of the Tetramorium workers. Abbreviations of morphometric characters in Material and Methods. Upper line: arithmetic mean ± standard deviation, lower line, in []: minimum and maximum values, n = number of measured specimens, EYE *: following number of individuals were measured for the EYE character: T. chefketi (n = 18), T. exile (n = 30), T. moravicum (n = 18), T. anatolicum (n = 14), T. laurae (n = 15), T. alternans (n = 20), T. syriacum (n = 7), T. rhodium (n = 17), T. sulcinode (n = 13), T. annectens (n = 8), T. forte (n = 14).

	alternans (n=34)	anatolicum (n=38)	annectens chefketi exile moravicum rhodium (n=8) (n=131) (n=33) (n=108) (n=22)	sanetrai sulcinode (n=15) (n=17)	syriacum (n=23)
CS	733 ±35.37 [652, 820]	702 ±23.87 [635, 743]	675 ±17.39 869 ±51.36 696 ±23.95 833 ±60.74 832 ±52.91 [645, 703] [740, 972] [620, 742] [720, 953] [720, 895]	740 ±31.90 801 ±31.65 [683, 783] [773, 853]	832 ±16.18 [807, 865]
CL/CW	1.01 ±0.01 [0.97,1.05]	1.02 ±0.02 [0.99, 1.05]	1.02 ±0.02 1.01 ±0.02 1.06 ±0.01 1.02 ±0.02 0.99 ±0.01 [1.0, 1.05] [0.97, 1.04] [1.04, 1.08] [0.97, 1.06] [0.98, 1.02]	1.01 ±0.02 1.02 ±0.02 [0.98, 1.04] [0.98, 1.03]	1.02 ±0.01 [0.99, 1.04]
FR/CS	0.39 ±0.01 [0.37,0.41]	0.37 ±0.01 [0.35, 0.39]	0.39 ±0.01 0.37 ±0.01 0.34 ±0.01 0.36 ±0.01 0.38 ±0.01 [0.38, 0.40] [0.35, 0.39] [0.33, 0.37] [0.34, 0.38] [0.36, 0.40]	0.37 ±0.01 0.37 ±0.01 [0.36, 0.38] [0.36, 0.38]	0.50 ±0.01 [0.49, 0.55]
FL/FR	1.00 ±0.00 [1.0, 1.0]	1.02 ±0.05 [1.0, 1.08]	1.02 ±0.01 1.03 ±0.02 1.0 ±0.01 1.01 ±0.01 1.0 ±0.0 [1.0, 1.04] [1.0, 1.09] [1.0, 1.02] [1.0, 1.04] [1.00, 1.02]	1.00 ±0.00 1.01 ±0.01 [1.0, 1.02] [1.0, 1.02]	1.01 ±0.01 [1.00, 1.02]
SL/CS	0.71 ±0.01 [0.69,0.74]	0.78 ±0.01 [0.76, 0.81]	0.76 ±0.01 0.82 ±0.02 0.84 ±0.01 0.80 ±0.02 0.73 ±0.01 [0.73, 0.77] [0.78, [0.82, 0.85] [0.77, 0.83] [0.71, 0.75] 0.87]	0.74 ±0.02 0.78 ±0.01 [0.72, 0.75] [0.76, 0.81]	0.75 ±0.01 [0.70, 0.77]
EYE*	0.168±0.01 [0.155, 0.176]*	0.176 ±0.0 [0.167, 0.182]*	0.205±0.01 0.171±0.01 0.167±0.00 0.170±0.01 0.173±0.01 [0.196, [0.165, [0.158, [0.165, [0.163, 0.214]* 0.184]* 0.175]* 0.183]* 0.184]*	0.172±0.01 0.186±0.01 [0.164, [0.180, 0.185]* 0.190]*	0.162±0.01 [0.155, 0.171]*
ML/CS	1.10 ±0.03 [1.04,1.14]	1.08 ±0.03 [1.06, 1.16]	1.13 ±0.04 1.18 ±0.03 1.14 ±0.02 1.18 ±0.03 1.12 ±0.02 [1.06, 1.16] [1.10, 1.23] [1.10 1.21] [1.13, 1.26] [1.08, 1.16]	1.13 ±0.02 1.12 ±0.02 [1.10, 1.18] [1.09, 1.17]	1.16 ±0.02 [1.09, 1.20]
MW/CS	0.63 ±0.01 [0.60,0.65]	0.62 ±0.01 [0.60, 0.65]	0.65 ±0.02 0.64 ±0.02 0.63 ±0.01 0.64 ±0.02 0.64 ±0.01 [0.62, 0.68] [0.60, 0.68] [0.61, 0.65] [0.59, 0.69] [0.62, 0.66]	0.63 ±0.01 0.65 ±0.01 [0.62, 0.65] [0.63, 0.67]	0.65 ±0.01 [0.63, 0.66]
PEW/ PPW	0.86 ±0.04 [0.80,0.91]	0.80 ±0.02 [0.74, 0.83]	0.73 ±0.02 0.85 ±0.03 0.86 ±0.03 0.83 ±0.03 0.84 ±0.02 [0.70, 0.75] [0.76, 0.93] [0.80, 0.92] [0.75, 0.89] [0.71, 0.90]	0.83 ±0.02 0.84 ±0.01 [0.78, 0.85] [0.82, 0.85]	0.84 ±0.02 [0.81, 0.88]
NOH/ NOL	1.03 ±0.06 [0.94,1.13]	1.15 ±0.08 [1.0, 1.30]	1.10 ±0.11 0.86 ±0.06 1.04 ±0.06 1.07 ±0.08 0.84 ±0.03 [0.96, 1.25] [0.76, 0.97] [0.90, 1.17] [0.90, 1.29] [0.76, 0.97]	0.89 ±0.04 1.14 ±0.06 [0.83, 0.97] [1.06, 1.21]	0.84 ±0.03 [0.78, 0.89]
PEH/ NOL	1.84 ±0.12 [1.68,2.04]	2.01 ±0.08 [1.74, 2.30]	2.06 ±0.08 1.52 ±0.10 1.83 ±0.06 1.94 ±0.12 1.50 ±0.04 [1.96, 2.12] [1.37, 1.69] [1.69, 1.96] [1.72, 2.23] [1.38, 1.73]	1.54 ±0.04 1.99 ±0.07 [1.47, 1.63] [1.87, 2.07]	1.51 ±0.04 [1.43, 1.6]
NOL/ PEL	0.87 ±0.07 [0.73,1.00]	0.76 ±0.06 [0.67, 0.93]	0.78 ±0.05 0.98 ±0.05 0.86 ±0.03 0.85 ±0.05 1.01 ±0.03 [0.67, 0.83] [0.81, 1.12] [0.80, 0.94] [0.77, 0.94] [0.94, 1.06]	1.03 ±0.06 0.83 ±0.03 [0.95, 1.12] [0.80, 0.88]	1.01 ±0.03 [0.97, 1.08]
CS/ PEW	3.11 ±0.13 [2.93,3.39]	3.49 ±0.14 [3.22, 3.75]	3.50 ±0.19 3.16 ±0.15 3.32 ±0.14 3.18 ±0.14 3.29 ±0.11 [3.35, 3.81] [2.72, 3.49] [3.09, 3.69] [2.84, 3.50] [3.07, 3.53]	3.05 ±0.09 3.17 ±0.12 [2.91, 3.20] [3.03, 3.33]	3.26 ±0.11 [3.05, 3.52]
CS/ PPW	2.66 ±0.11 [2.42,2.85]	2.79 ±0.10 [2.56, 3.03]	2.55 ±0.13 2.70 ±0.13 2.84 ±0.09 2.63 ±0.09 2.80 ±0.06 [2.38, 2.80] [2.33, 2.92] [2.64, 3.01] [2.40, 2.88] [2.64, 3.0]	2.52 ±0.08 2.67 ±0.09 [2.38, 2.74] [2.58, 2.82]	2.75 ±0.06 [2.65, 2.88]

TABLE 2. Morphometric comparison (mm) of the Tetramorium gynes. Abbreviations of morphometric characters in Material and Methods. Upper line: arithmetic mean ± standard deviation, lower line, in []: minimum and maximum values, n = number of measured specimens.

CS	999 ±31.35 [948, 1025]	1012 ±38.84 [980, 1055]	997.5	1121 ±38.97 [1060, 1180]	1198 ±79.59 [1045, 1275]	986 ±11.81 [973, 995]	973 ±39.9 [940, 1018]
CL/CW	0.92 ±0.02 [0.90, 0.95]	0.93 ±0.04 [0.90, 0.98]	0.98	0.92 ±0.02 [0.89, 0.95]	0.88 ±0.02 [0.84, 0.92]	0.89 ±0.02 [0.86, 0.90]	0.94 ±0.02 [0.92, 0.97]
FR/CS	0.41 ±0.01 [0.40, 0.42]	0.37 ±0.02 [0.36, 0.40]	0.39	0.38 ±0.01 [0.36, 0.40]	0.36 ±0.01 [0.34, 0.38]	0.38 ±0.00 [0.37, 0.38]	0.37 ±0.01 [0.36, 0.37]
FL/FR	1.00 ±0.00 [1.0, 1.0]	1.01 ±0.03 [1.0, 1.03]	1.0	1.01 ±0.01 [1.0, 1.03]	1.0 ±0.01 [1.0, 1.02]	1.00 ±0.00 [1.0, 1.0]	1.00 ±0.00 [1.0, 1.0]
SL/CS	0.69 ±0.02 [0.65, 0.71]	0.75 ±0.03 [0.71, 0.77]	0.72	0.77 ±0.01 [0.75, 0.79]	0.73 ±0.01 [0.71, 0.75]	0.67 ±0.01 [0.66, 0.68]	0.73 ±0.01 [0.72, 0.74]
MW/CS	0.94 ±0.02 [0.92, 0.97]	0.96 ±0.05 [0.92, 1.01]	0.92	0.94 ±0.02 [0.88, 1.01]	1.07 ±0.02 [1.05, 1.13]	0.94 ±0.01 [0.94, 0.95]	0.93 ±0.01 [0.92, 0.94]
PEW/PPW	0.76 ±0.01 [0.74, 0.77]	0.72 ±0.04 [0.68, 0.75]	—	0.78 ±0.03 [0.75, 0.82]	0.71 ±0.03 [0.66, 0.76]	0.76 ±0.02 [0.73, 0.77]	0.75 ±0.01 [0.74, 0.76]
NOH/NOL	1.44 ±0.14 [1.31, 1.61]	1.70 ±0.25 [1.41, 1.86]	1.38	1.14 ±0.12 [1.0, 1.31]	2.07 ±0.21 [1.69, 2.42]	1.35 ±0.10 [1.28, 1.47]	1.51 ±0.17 [1.38, 1.70]
NOH/PEL	0.87 ±0.10 [0.73, 0.98]	0.95 ±0.07 [0.87, 1.0]	0.94	0.83 ±0.09 [0.71, 0.93]	0.90 ±0.07 [0.82, 1.0]	0.91 ±0.01 [0.90, 0.92]	0.92 ±0.08 [0.85, 1.0]
NOL/PEL	0.60 ±0.04 [0.56, 0.65]	0.56 ±0.05 [0.53, 0.62]	0.68	0.73 ±0.06 [0.60, 0.82]	0.44 ±0.05 [0.34, 0.52]	0.68 ±0.05 [0.63, 0.72]	0.61 ±0.02 [0.59, 0.62]
PEH/NOL	2.89 ±0.13 [2.75, 3.04]	3.04 ±0.47 [2.53, 3.46]	2.56	2.18 ±0.17 [2.0, 2.54]	3.95 ±0.36 [3.31, 4.50]	2.58 ±0.19 [2.44, 2.80]	2.77 ±0.33 [2.53, 3.15]
PEW/PEH	0.94 ±0.05 [0.86, 0.98]	0.86 ±0.03 [0.83, 0.88]	0.80	0.94 ±0.03 [0.89, 0.99]	0.89 ±0.04 [0.83, 0.94]	0.96 ±0.07 [0.89, 1.02]	0.82 ±0.01 [0.82, 0.83]
CS/PEW	2.49 ±0.20 [2.31, 2.83]	2.82 ±0.15 [2.72, 2.99]	2.85	2.52 ±0.06 [2.43, 2.60]	2.61 ±0.16 [2.33, 2.80]	2.37 ±0.06 [2.31, 2.43]	2.86 ±0.05 [2.81, 2.91]
CS/PPW	1.89 ±0.13 [1.76, 2.11]	2.01 ±0.04 [1.97, 2.04]	—	1.97 ±0.08 [1.82, 2.11]	1.86 ±0.10 [1.74, 2.02]	1.79 ±0.03 [1.77, 1.82]	2.15 ±0.06 [2.09, 2.21]
WAIST	0.93 ±0.06 [0.83, 1.0]	0.85 ±0.02 [0.83, 0.87]	—	0.90 ±0.03 [0.86, 0.96]	0.92 ±0.05 [0.86, 1.0]	0.98 ±0.01 [0.97, 0.99]	0.82 ±0.02 [0.80, 0.84]