Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Southern Iran by Hassan Ghahari* & Cedric A
Calodema, 176: 1-5 (2011)
A study on the ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of southern Iran by Hassan Ghahari* & Cedric A. Collingwood**
*- Department of Agriculture, Shahre Rey Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran; email: [email protected] **- 18 Milton Street, Skipton, North Yorkshire, BD 23 2E8, United Kingdom
Ghahari, H. & Collingwood, C.A. (2011). A study on the ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of southern Iran. Calodema, 176: 1-5.
Abstract: Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) can be pivotal members of communities, scavenging large quantities of organic matter including dead and living insects, and plant seeds. This research was done for determining the ant fauna in some provinces of southern Iran. In a total 38 species from 14 genera were collected and identified.
Key words: Hymenoptera, ant, Formicidae, fauna, Iran
Introduction
Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) have colonized almost every landmass on Earth. They thrive in most ecosystems, and may form 15-25% of the terrestrial animal biomass (Hölldobler & Wilson 1990). Their success has been attributed to their social organization and their ability to modify habitats, tap resources, and defend themselves (Carrol & Janzen, 1973; Hansen & Klotz, 2005). Invasive species use man-made transport networks for their global dispersal and often damage native ecosystems by their high rates of population growth after introduction (Williamson, 1996). The Iranian Formicidae fauna has been poorly studied and totally 144 species and subspecies were reported so far (Paknia et al., 2008; Sakenin et al., 2008; Ghahari et al., 2009). Among the different regions of Iran, the fauna of southern Iran was not studied well. With attention to the importance of ants in the life of humans and also in almost all ecosystems (Hölldobler & Wilson, 1990), the fauna of these beneficial insects is studied in southern Iran.
Materials and Methods
In this research, six provinces of southern Iran including, Bushehr, Hormozgan, Fars, Sistan & Baluchestan, Kerman and Khuzestan were sampled for studying the ant fauna. Although several specimens were collected, only three subfamilies including, Formicinae, Myrmicinae, Pseudomyrmicinae are studied in this paper. Ants were collected by hand-searching, pitfall traps and sweep nettings. The information concerning the species name, author, year of description, locality, the date of collection, place on which the species were collected, and the number of species (in brackets) are given. For classification and nomenclature of Formicidae we followed works of Collingwood (1985), Collingwood & Agosti (1996) and Bolton (1994, 1995, 2003).
Results
Altogether total of 38 species from 14 genera and 3 subfamilies of ants were collected from 6 provinces including, Bushehr, Fars, Hormozgan, Kerman, Khuzestan and Sistan & Baluchestan of southern Iran. The list of species is provided below.
Subfamily Formicinae
Genus Camponotus Mayr, 1861
Camponotus atlantis Forel, 1890 Material: Bushehr province: Bushehr (3), May 2006.
Camponotus baldaccii Emery, 1908 Material: Fars province: Shiraz (1), Unknown date.
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Camponotus ilgii Forel, 1894 Material: Sistan & Baluchestan province: Chabahar (1), November 2005.
Camponotus sericeus (Fabricius, 1798) Material: Khuzestan province: Dezful (4), September 2005.
Camponotus thoracicus (Fabricius, 1804) Material: Sistan & Baluchestan province: Iranshahr (2), October 2005.
Genus Cataglyphis Förster, 1850
Cataglyphis abyssinicus (Forel, 1904) Material: Fars province: Lar (3), April 2004.
Cataglyphis cinnamomeus Karawaiew, 1910 Material: Hormozgan province: Minab (1), August 2003.
Cataglyphis diehlii (Forel, 1902) Material: Fars province: Kazeroon (2), June 2001.
Cataglyphis lividus (André, 1881) Material: Sistan & Baluchestan: Chabahar (1), November 2005.
Cataglyphis niger (André, 1881) Material: Khuzestan province: Ramhormoz (1), July 2005.
Cataglyphis setipes (Forel, 1894) Material: Fars province: Lar (4), April 2006.
Genus Lepisiota Santschi, 1926
Lepisiota bipartita (Smith, 1861) Material: Bushehr province: Bushehr (1), May 2006.
Lepisiota dolabellae (Forel, 1911) Material: Bushehr province: Brazjan (2), October 2004.
Genus Plagiolepis (Mayr, 1861)
Plagiolepis pygmaea (Latreille, 1798) Material: Khuzestan province: Ahwaz, Date-palm (1), Unknown date.
Genus Tapinolepis Emery, 1925
Tapinolepis tumidula (Emery, 1915) Material: Kerman province: Bam, Date-palm (1), April 2007.
Subfamily Myrmicinae
Genus Cardiocondyla Emery, 1869
Cardiocondyla emeryi Forel, 1881 Material: Hormozgan province: Goharan (2), July 2003.
Cardiocondyla shuckardi Forel, 1891 Material: Kerman province: Jiroft, Date-palm (2), September 2002.
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Genus Crematogaster Lund, 1831
Crematogaster auberti Emery, 1869 Material: Sistan & Baluchestan province: Iranshahr (3), August 2005.
Crematogaster luctans Forel, 1907 Material: Bushehr province: Bushehr, Kaki orchard (1), Unknown date.
Genus Messor Forel, 1890
Messor arenarius (Fabricius, 1787) Material: Hormozgan province: Minab (3), August 2003.
Messor galla (Mayr, 1904) Material: Khuzestan province: Khorramshahr (2), Unknown date.
Messor medioruber Santschi, 1910 Material: Hormozgan province: Bandar-Abbas (1), July 2005.
Messor meridionalis (André, 1883) Material: Sistan & Baluchestan: Nikshahr (3), September 2005.
Messor rufotestaceus (Foerster, 1850) Material: Fars province: Darab (1), September 2002.
Genus Monomorium Mayr, 1855
Monomorium abeillei André, 1881 Material: Hormozgan province: Minab, Date-palm (5), August 2003.
Monomorium bicolor Emery, 1877 Material: Bushehr province: Bandar-e-Dayyer (2), August 2006.
Monomorium clavicorne André, 1881 Material: Khuzestan province: Abadan (2), October 2005.
Monomorium mayri Forel, 1902 Material: Bushehr province: Bandar-e-Genaveh (1), July 2006.
Monomorium salomonis (Linnaeus, 1758) Material: Hormozgan province: Goharan (2), July 2003.
Monomorium subopacum (F. Smith, 1858) Material: Kerman province: Bam, Date-palm (2), April 2007.
Genus Tetramorium Mayr, 1855
Tetramorium caldarium (Roger, 1857) Material: Sistan & Baluchestan: Nikshahr (1), Summer 2005.
Tetramorium lanuginosum Mayr, 1870 Material: Bushehr province: Bandar-e-Dayyer (3), Unknown date.
Tetramorium sericeiventre Emery, 1877 Material: Hormozgan province: Bandar-Abbas (2), July 2005.
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Genus Pheidole Westwood, 1839
Pheidole teneriffana Forel, 1893 Material: Khuzestan province: Khorramshahr (3), October 2005.
Pheidole megacephala (Fabricius, 1793) Material: Hormozgan province: Minab, Date-palm (9), August 2003.
Genus Leptogenys Roger, 1861
Leptogenys maxillosa (Smith, 1858) Material: Bushehr province: Bandar-e-Dayyer (2), August 2006.
Genus Pachycondyla Smith, 1858
Pachycondyla ambigua André, 1890 Material: Khuzestan province: Dezful (2), September 2005.
Subfamily Pseudomyrmicinae
Genus Tetraponera Smith, 1857
Tetraponera ambigua (Emery, 1895) Material: Fars province: Shiraz (1), Unknown date.
Discussion
The result of this present research indicates that there is a diverse ant fauna living within southern Iran. This paper deals with only 21 localities of 6 provinces of southern Iran, while there are several other localities in this part of Iran which were not sampled in this research. Surely, vast samplings within all regions of Southern Iran will result in several new records and probably new species. On the other hand, the Iranian Formicidae fauna has been poorly studied (Paknia et al., 2008; Ghahari et al., 2009), while Iran is a large country with various geographical regions. Therefore it is expected that a large number of species remain to be discovered by researchers.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to S. Csosz of Hungary, E.O. Wilson of the USA, S. Shattuk of Australia and H. Ostovan for valuable assistance in the progress of this project and for sending many necessary papers. We are also thank to Trevor J. Hawkeswood of Australia and D. Makhan of the Netherlands for editorial assistance. The project was supported by the Shahre Rey Islamic Azad University.
References
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Dash, S.T. (2005). Species Diversity and biogeography of Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Louisianan, with Notes on their Ecology. M.S. Thesis, Louisiana State University, 290 pp. Ghahari, H., Collingwood, C.A., Tabari, M. and Ostovan H. (2009). Faunistic notes on Formicidae (Insecta: Hymenoptera) of rice fields and surrounding grasslands in Northern Iran. Munis Entomology & Zoology, 4(1): 184-189. Hansen, L.D. & Klotz, J.H. (2005). Carpenter ants of the United States and Canada. Cornell University Press. Ithaca, NY. 204 pp. Hölldobler, B. & Wilson, E.O. (1990). The ants. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 700 pp. Kolar, C.S. & Lodge, D.M. (2001). Progress in invasion biology: predicting invaders. Trends Ecology & Evolution, 16: 199-204. Novak, S.J. (2007). The role of evolution in the invasive process. Proceedings of the National. Acadamy of Science of the USA, 104: 3671-3672. Paknia, O., Radchenko, A., Alipanah, H. & Pfeiffer, M. (2008). A preliminary check-list of the ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Iran. Myrmecological News, 11: 151-159. Sakenin, H., Ghahari, H., Tabari, M., Monem, R., Havaskary, M. & Rashidi, A. (2008). A preliminary survey on the fauna of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae, Mutillidae) and rove beetles (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) in Iranian rice fields and surrounding grasslands. Proceedings of National Conference of Agronomical Rice Breeding, Young Research Club Islamic Azad University of Ghaemshahr, 26-27 November 2008, Abstract p. 80 (Full paper in CD Rom, 10 pp) (In Persian with English Summary). Traniello, J.F.A. (1989). Foraging strategies of ants. Annual Review of Entomology, 34: 191-210. Williamson, M. (1996). Biological invasions. London: Chapman & Hall, 244 pp.
Date of publication: 25 September 2011 Copyright: Dr Hassan Ghahari and Dr Cedric A. Collingwood Editor: Dr T.J. Hawkeswood (www.calodema.com) (Published as hard paper copy edition as well as electronic pdf)
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