Eur. J. Entomol. 103 (2): 469-476, 2006 | DOI: 10.14411/eje.2006.060

More than one species of Messor harvester ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Central Europe

Birgit C. SCHLICK-STEINER*,1,2, Florian M. STEINER*,1,2, Heino KONRAD1, Bálint MARKÓ3, Sándor CSŐSZ4, Gerhard HELLER5, Beatrix FERENCZ6, Botond SIPOS6, Erhard CHRISTIAN2, Christian STAUFFER1
1 Institute of Forest Entomology, Forest Pathology and Forest Protection, Department of Forest and Soil Sciences;
2 Institute of Zoology, Department of Integrative Biology, Boku, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences Vienna, Hasenauerstr. 33, A-1190 Vienna, Austria; e-mails: h9304696@edv1.boku.ac.at; christian.stauffer@boku.ac.at.
3 Department of Taxonomy and Ecology, Babes-Bolyai University, str. Clinicilor 5-7, 400006 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
4 Hungarian Natural History Museum, Baross u. 13, 1088 Budapest, Hungary
5 Stauferring 47, D-55218 Ingelheim, Germany
6 Department of Experimental Biology, Babes-Bolyai University, str. Clinicilor 5-7, 400006 Cluj-Napoca, Romania

It is commonly held that Central Europe harbours but a single harvester ant species, namely Messor structor. Recently discovered 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 phylogenetic analyses revealed a distinct substructuring for both of the detected major lineages and the possible existence of additional cryptic species.

Keywords: Formicidae, Messor, harvester ants, cryptic species, biodiversity, mitochondrial DNA, molecular taxonomy, phylogeny, systematics

Received: June 2, 2005; Revised: November 21, 2005; Accepted: November 21, 2005; Published: April 6, 2006  Show citation

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SCHLICK-STEINER, B.C., STEINER, F.M., KONRAD, H., MARKÓ, B., CSŐSZ, S., HELLER, G., ... STAUFFER, C. (2006). More than one species of Messor harvester ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Central Europe. EJE, 103(2), 469-476. doi: 10.14411/eje.2006.060
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