Eur. J. Entomol. 117: 420-429, 2020 | DOI: 10.14411/eje.2020.046

Contribution of a DNA barcode to an assessment of the specificity of ant taxa (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) on CorsicaOriginal article

Rumsaïs BLATRIX1, Clément AUBERT1, Thibaud DECAËNS1, Cyril BERQUIER2, Marie-Cécile ANDREI-RUIZ2, Christophe GALKOWSKI3
1 CEFE, Univ Montpellier, CNRS, EPHE, IRD, Univ Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, 1919 route de Mende, 34293 Montpellier, France; e-mails: rumsais.blatrix@cefe.cnrs.fr, Clement.aubert34@hotmail.fr, thibaud.decaens@cefe.cnrs.fr
2 Conservatoire des Insectes de Corse, Office de l'Environnement de la Corse (OEC-OCIC), 14 Avenue Jean Nicoli, 20250 Corte, France; e-mails: Cyril.Berquier@oec.fr, Marie-Cecile.Ruiz@oec.fr
3 104 route de Mounic, 33160 Saint Aubin de Médoc, France; email: chris.gal@wanadoo.fr

We used the COI marker, the most popular DNA barcode for the animal kingdom, to assess the taxonomic status of Corsican populations of eight groups of species of ants that occur both on Corsica and the European mainland. (i) In two groups, we detected no genetic differentiation between Corsica and the continent. Absence of differentiation across varieties of Aphaenogaster spinosa within Corsica confirm current synonymies. (ii) In four groups, we detected strong genetic differentiation between Corsica and the continent, confirming recent taxonomic studies based on morphology for three of these groups. For the fourth group, we propose that the status of Corsican populations be raised from sub-species to species: Temnothorax cordieri stat. rev. (iii) In one group, the genetic differentiation and morphological differences do not support splitting and as a consequence we propose to accept the previous synonymy Temnothorax tuberum = Temnothorax melanocephalus. (iv) In Myrmica scabrinodis and Myrmica spinosior, COI sequence information is largely inconsistent with morphology and geography, not only on Corsica but also on the mainland, and should not be used to support taxonomic decisions. Although the use of COI has drawbacks, it is globally consistent with morphology and can be used to complement morphological ant taxonomy. We provide an updated checklist of ants of Corsica.

Keywords: Hymenoptera, Formicidae, ants, Corsica, Mediterranean islands, COI, barcode, integrative taxonomy, synonymy

Received: March 31, 2020; Revised: September 23, 2020; Accepted: September 23, 2020; Published online: October 29, 2020  Show citation

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BLATRIX, R., AUBERT, C., DECAËNS, T., BERQUIER, C., ANDREI-RUIZ, M., & GALKOWSKI, C. (2020). Contribution of a DNA barcode to an assessment of the specificity of ant taxa (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) on Corsica. EJE, 117, Article 420-429. https://doi.org/10.14411/eje.2020.046
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