A Southern Record of the Xenobiotic Ant Formicoxenus quebecensis from Eastern Wisconsin

The ant genus Formicoxenus is notable for the fact that all its species are xenobiotic and live inside or in close association with the nests of other ant species. Here, we report the occurrence of a colony of Formicoxenus quebecensis and its host, Myrmica alaskensis from the eastern side of the Door peninsula in Wisconsin. Both species are new records for the state, and F. quebecensis was previously known only from boreal habitats much farther north in Canada. We also provide some observations on this colony’s nest demography, morphology, and feeding behavior and discuss the ant community of this biogeographically interesting location.

Taxonomic revision of the Temnothorax salvini clade (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), with a key to the clades of New World Temnothorax

Temnothorax is a large myrmicine ant genus with a range spanning the northern hemisphere, including the northern half of the Neotropics. Many of the Neotropical species were originally placed in the now defunct genus Macromischa. Recent molecular work has revealed that distinct lineages of Neotropical Temnothorax have arrived by evolutionary convergenceat a morphological syndrome with characteristics that were used to diagnose the former genus Macromischa. One such lineage is the salvini clade, which in this study is redefined to contain 63 species, 35 of which are described as new. A key to all species of the salvini clade based on the worker caste is provided; additionally, a worker-based key to all clades of the New World is provided. The following species are redescribed: T. albispinus (Wheeler), T. androsanus (Wheeler), T. annexus (Baroni Urbani), T. augusti (Baroni Urbani), T. aztecus (Wheeler), T. ciferrii (Menozzi & Russo), T. flavidulus (Wheeler & Mann), T. fuscatus (Mann), T. goniops (Baroni Urbani), T. huehuetenangoi (Baroni Urbani), T. ixili (Baroni Urbani), T. leucacanthus (Baroni Urbani), T. nigricans (Baroni Urbani), T. ocarinae (Baroni Urbani), T. pastinifer (Emery), T. pergandei (Emery), T. politus (Smith), T. pulchellus (Emery), T. rugosus (Mackay), T. salvini (Forel), T. schwarzi (Mann), T. skwarrae (Wheeler), T. subditivus (Wheeler), T. tenuisculptus (Baroni Urbani), T. terricola (Mann), T. terrigena (Wheeler), T. torrei (Aguayo). The gynes of T. ciferrii, T. fuscatus, T. ixili, T. politus, T. rugosus, T. salvini, T. tenuisculptus and T. torrei are described. The males of T. albispinus and T. fuscatus are described. Lectotypes are designated for T. androsanus, T. annexus, T. augusti, T. aztecus, T. flavidulus, T. fuscatus, T. nigricans, T. pastinifer, T. pergandei, T. politus, T. pulchellus, T. salvini, T. skwarrae, T. subditivus, T. terricola, and T. terrigena. A neotype for Temnothorax salvini obscurior (Forel) is designated, the taxon is raised to species, and a replacement name is designated: T. longicaulis stat. nov., nom. nov. The following species are described as new: T. achii sp. nov., T. acuminatus sp. nov., T. acutispinosus sp. nov., T. agavicola sp. nov., T. altinodus sp. nov., T. arbustus sp. nov., T. aureus sp. nov., T. aztecoides sp. nov., T. bahoruco sp. nov., T. balaclava sp. nov., T. balnearius sp. nov., T. bison sp. nov., T. casanovai sp. nov., T. fortispinosus sp. nov., T. harlequina sp. nov., T. hippolytus sp. nov., T. laticrus sp. nov., T. leucacanthoides sp. nov., T. longinoi sp. nov., T. magnabulla sp. nov., T. misomoschus sp. nov., T. nebliselva sp. nov., T. obtusigaster sp. nov., T. paraztecus sp. nov., T. parralensis sp. nov., T. parvidentatus sp. nov., T. pilicornis sp. nov., T. quercicola sp. nov., T. quetzal sp. nov., T. rutabulafer sp. nov., T. terraztecus sp. nov., T. tuxtlanus sp. nov., T. wettereri sp. nov., T. wilsoni sp. nov., T. xincai sp. nov

The rediscovery of the putative ant social parasite Manica parasitica syn. nov. (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) reveals an unexpected endoparasite syndrome

Parasitism is ubiquitous across the tree of life, and parasites comprise approximately half of all animal species. Social insect colonies attract many pathogens, endo- and ectoparasites, and are exploited by social parasites, which usurp the social environment of their hosts for survival and reproduction. Exploitation by parasites and pathogens versus social parasites may cause similar behavioural and morphological modifications of the host. Ants possess two overlapping syndromes: the endo- and social parasite syndromes. We rediscovered two populations of the putative social parasite Manica parasitica in the Sierra Nevada, and tested the hypothesis that M. parasitica is an independently evolving social parasite. We evaluated traits used to discriminate M. parasitica from its host Manica bradleyi, and examined the morphology of M. parasitica in the context of ant parasitic syndromes. We find that M. parasitica is not a social parasite. Instead, M. parasitica represents cestode-infected M. bradleyi. We propose that M. parasitica should be regarded as a junior synonym of M. bradleyi. Our results emphasize that an integrative approach is essential for unravelling the complex life histories of social insects and their symbionts

BioGeoBEARS

This file contains the input files for the BioGeoBEARS analysis of the empirical data, as well as a script for model-averaging BioGeoBEARS output

Complete set of aligned UCE loci

This file contains the complete set of 2510 aligned, untrimmed ultraconserved element loci in FASTA forma

Phylogenomic species delimitation in the ants of the Temnothorax salvini Group (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): An integrative approach

The members of the Temnothorax salvini species group are rarely collected, arboreally nesting ants of Central American forests. Previously thought to consist of two broadly dispersed species, recent collections have revealed a diversity of specimens that defy the two-species salvini group concept, but these are difficult to distinguish from each other based solely on morphology. I contrast several model-based approaches to species delimitation based on target-enriched genomic data. With molecular data from thousands of ultraconserved elements (UCEs), mitochondrial genome sequences, and morphometric data, I use an integrated approach to species delimitation within the salvini group. Morphometric data were analyzed using cluster analysis of principal component analysis (PCA) output. I use several popular methods of molecular species delimitation, including bPTP, BPP, and STACEY, using a novel approach to filtering UCE data based on posterior predictive checks of nucleotide substitution model adequacy. Additionally, I use iBPP to integrate morphometric PCA data and filtered UCE data in a 'total evidence' analysis. I use geographical range data for an independent contrast to discriminate amongst competing species delimitation hypotheses. Furthermore, I investigate the evolutionary timescale and biogeographical history of the group and find that it evolved roughly 12.5 Ma ago in habitats associated with present day mid-to-high elevations of the mountain complex spanning southern Mexico to northern Nicaragua. Additionally, dispersal of the salvini group into the Southern Sierra Madre in Mexico, lowland habitats, and the Sierra de Talamanca in Costa Rica and Panama subsequent to mountain building in southern Central America 5-8 Ma ago appears to follow a taxon-cycle dynamic, with the lowland-adapted T. aztecus representing the most recent expansion phase. I find that the salvini group, which previously contained two named species, is composed of nine, all of which are morphologically diagnosable a posteriori.See the README file for a synopsis of the contents of the dataset. Funding provided by: National Science FoundationCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000001Award Number: DEB-135499

UCE analysis input files

This file contains the 'min90' and 'coding' ultraconserved elements alignments and their associated partition files

Palearctic elements in the old world tropics: a taxonomic revision of the ant genus Temnothorax Mayr (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) for the Afrotropical biogeographical region

Four new Afrotropical species of the ant genus Temnothorax are described and illustrated, all from Kenya. Based upon high resemblance to taxa known from the North African and Iberian territories of the Mediterranean region, these new tropical elements are placed into known Palaearctic species complexes. Specifically, T. brevidentis sp. n., T. mpala sp. n. and T. rufus sp. n. are placed in the laurae species group, and T. solidinodus sp. n. is placed in the angustulus species group. Two already known Temnothorax species from the region, T. cenatus (Bolton, 1982) and T. megalops (Hamann & Klemm, 1967), are also placed into the laurae species group based on the high number of shared morphological characters. Diagnoses for the African representatives of laurae and angustulus species groups of the Afrotropical biogeographical region are provided. A key to workers of the six Temnothorax species known to occur in the Afrotropical biogeographical region is provided, as well as diagnoses of morphologically similar myrmicine genera

HiSSE scripts

This file contains the scripts and input files for the HiSSE analysis of arboreality and parasitism in Temnothorax

Data matrices and tree files for the 'min90' UCE and 10-gene Sanger datasets

This links to matrices and trees associated with Figures 2 and 3 in the main article