Camponotus ligniperda (Latreille 1802)

Schifani, Enrico, Csősz, SÁndor, Viviano, Roberto & Alicata, Antonio, 2021, Ant diversity on the largest Mediterranean islands: on the presence or absence of 28 species in Sicily (Hymenoptera, Formicidae), Natural History Sciences 8 (1), pp. 55-70 : 62

1. Camponotus ligniperda (Latreille 1802)

This European species has a rather ather montanedistribudistribu-- tion in Italy, where it is especially common in the Northern Apennines and the Alps (Baroni Urbani, 1964b). Considering that it is one of the largest European ant species (Seifert, 2018), it is unlikely to be overlooked during field surveys. There are two Sicilian records of this species: De Stefani (1889) reports about its presence in Monreale , and Emery (1915) vaguely mentions the Madonie Mountains . Accordingly, several following papers uncritically mentioned C. ligniperda as a member of the Sicilian ant fauna (De Stefani, 1895; Donisthorpe, 1927; Kutter, 1927; Emery, 1916; Monastero, 1950; Baroni Urbani, 1964b; 1971; Poldi et al., 1995). Monreale and its hill (Monte Caputo, 764 m asl) represent unsuitable sites for this species, being rather thermophilous areas hosting a rather Mediterranean ant assemblage. Species such as Aphaenogaster ichnusa Santschi 1925 , Lasius lasioides (Emery 1869) and Temnothorax lagrecai (Baroni Urbani 1964) are common at Monte Caputo’s highest elevations (Schifani & Alicata, 2018; authors’ unpublished data). Some nearby mountains reach a higher elevation (e.g. Monte Moarda, 1090 m asl), but even there we did not detect C. ligniperda nor an ecologically related fauna: species such as L. casevitzi Seifert & Galkowski 2016 and Formica cunicularia Latreille 1798 characterize the higher elevations (Schifani & Alicata, 2018; authors’ unpublished data). On the other hand, Emery’s record (1915) may look more reliable: Madonie Mountains , a protected regional park of 39,941 ha, have many high elevation sites, among which Pizzo Carbonara is the second highest Sicilian peak (1979 m asl). These sites are inhabited by some of Sicily’s most cryophilous ant species, all mainland Europe species that likely colonized the island descending along the Italian Peninsula (e.g. Aphaenogaster subterranea Latreille 1798 , Formica sanguinea Latreille 1798 , Lasius psammophilus Seifert 1992 ). Such context would be more suited for C. ligniperda , yet in decades of extensive investigation, we found no evidence of its presence, including on the other main mountains of Sicily, such as the Nebrodi Mountains (highest peak 1847 m asl) and the Etna volcano (3326 m asl). We speculate that some previous records of C. ligniperda in Sicily were probably based on misidentifications of C. nylanderi , whose chromatic variation sometimes produces forms resembling the colour pattern of C. ligniperda . It would not be surprising if De Stefani (1889) had committed such a mistake considering the underdeveloped status of ant taxonomy at his time. On the other hand, Emery has been one of the most prominent myrmecologists for decades and at the time the record was published, it is hard to imagine him unable to distinguish between C. ligniperda and C. nylanderi . However, it is uncertain whether Emery’s statement was based on directly observed specimens, while significant exchanges of information with De Stefani certainly occurred (e.g. Schifani et al., 2020). However, in the event that Emery actually examined some C. ligniperda specimens from the Madonie Mountains , the most parsimonious hypothesis seems to be that of the temporary establishment of a small population of allochthonous origin. Although the Sicilian forests suffered a great reduction during the two world wars, all fragile insects associated with high elevation forest habitats survived until today (e.g. Rosalia alpina Linnaeus 1758 , see Drag et al., 2018), which makes it difficult to believe in the extinction of a large natural population of C. ligniperda from the whole Sicilian Apennines.