Temnothorax atlantis ( Santschi, 1911 )

Schifani, Enrico, Menchetti, Mattia, Csősz, Sándor & Vila, Roger, 2025, Inflated taxonomy in the West Mediterranean Temnothorax algiricus complex (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) revealed by quantitative morphology, Zootaxa 5691 (2), pp. 257-276 : 266-268

publication ID

https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5691.2.4

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:90515887-31DD-4859-BCC5-ABA9D9AAFA89

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/892287F2-FF89-FFC8-C6A1-18B3FF5AFE5E

treatment provided by

Plazi

scientific name

Temnothorax atlantis ( Santschi, 1911 )
status

 

Temnothorax atlantis ( Santschi, 1911) View in CoL

Figure 6 View FIGURE 6

= Leptothorax angustulus silvanus ( Forel, 1907) View in CoL syn. n.

= Leptothorax kiudiria Espadaler, 1997 View in CoL syn. n.

= Temnothorax atlantis suturalis Galkowski & Cagniant, 2017 syn. n.

= Temnothorax continentalis Galkowski & Cagniant, 2017 View in CoL syn. n.

Investigated type material: 1 syntype worker of atlantis investigated through AntWeb (CASENT0912894— NHMB, Basel, Switzerland) . 2 syntype workers of kiudiria investigated through AntWeb (CASENT0915388, CASENT0912953—NHMB, Basel, Switzerland) . 3 syntype workers of silvanus from the MHNG ( Geneva, Switzerland) with the label “TYPUS // L. angustulus silvanus / [worker symbol] [....] Foret de Msila / Oran (Forel) // L. silvanus Forel // ANTWEB CASENT0909012 // MHNG ENTO-0100926 // Silvanus Forel . 1 syntype worker of suturalis investigated through AntWeb (CASENT0912896—NHMB, Basel, Switzerland) .

Investigated non-type material: 19 workers from 9 colonies.

Worker redescription. Body normally bicolored, with parts or the entirety of the mesosoma and nodes being reddish or ferruginous and contrasting with the dark head and gaster, but sometimes also concolor dark brown. Antennae, legs, and mandibles yellow reddish to dark. Head subrectangular with rounded margin, clypeus and mandibles rounded. Antennae of 12 segments, antennal clubs of 3 segments. Compound eyes are ovoidal. The mesosoma may or not present a slight metanotal impression visible in lateral view on the dorsal profile. Propodeal spines relatively short and more horizontal, normally divergent in dorsal view, and often slightly curved in lateral view. The petiole has a triangular shape, with a small tooth-like subpetiolar process. The postpetiole has an ordinary ovoidal lateral profile and may appear subhexagonal in dorsal view.

Surface sculpture is generally fine, with larger parts of the head becoming dull in smaller specimens; a fine irregular sculpture in the rest of the body, with some striae on the dorsum of the mesosoma, often on the head, and largest specimens with a more developed sculpture on all surfaces. Clypeus always with a central carina.

Very sparse, usually erect setae all over the body; dense, fine, and mostly adpressed pilosity on the antennae.

Diagnosis. Compared to T. trabutii , the propodeal dorsum has a gentler transition with the rest of the mesosoma and is less steep [PropH2/PropH1: 0.919 ( 0.812, 1.092)]. Spines form a wider angle with the mesosoma than in T. algiricus and T. trabutii , with no range overlaps [SpANG: 147 (141, 161)]. On most other individual characters, it has average different but some overlaps with T. algiricus , and no overlaps with T. trabutii . The propodeal spines are shorter than in the other species [SPST/CS: 0.283 ( 0.201, 0.364)]. In dorsal view these are divergent and do not tend to curve inwards, the ratio between their maximum width and the width between their tips being averagely smaller than in the other species [SPWI/SPTI: 1.287 ( 1.026, 1.055)]. The ratio between the spines divergence and their length is higher than in the other species [SPWI/SPST: 1.060 ( 0.847, 1.307)].

Distribution. Algeria, France, Morocco, Spain —not known from any island. A record from Portugal by Henin et al. (2001) was suspected to represent misidentified T. convexus according to Arcos & Garcia (2023); while we believe it could truly represent T. atlantis , the publication does not provide enough information to reach a conclusion.

Taxonomic history. Temnothorax atlantis was described from the Atlas Mountains of Algeria (Takersan) by Santschi (1911) and said to be similar to T. angustulus (“almost an extreme race of it”) and to be distinguished from T. algiricus by pilosity length (without further details). However, Santschi (1921) reconsidered it as a subspecies of another species, T. normandi ( Santschi, 1912) , that he had earlier described. Temnothorax normandi is a very different species, morphologically resemblant of the T. nylanderi group ( Csősz et al. 2015), and Santschi (1921) did not elaborate on this relationship, while he described the ‘variety’ suturalis of atlantis . While most articles treated T. atlantis as a good species (e.g., Emery 1924; Bernard 1945; Cagniant 1964; 2006; Cagniant & Espadaler 1997; Galkowski & Cagniant 2017), Cagniant (1970) treated it as a subspecies of T. angustulus , similar to algiricus and replacing it in the Saharan Atlas. Finally, Cagniant & Galkowski (2017) considered T. atlantis to be a “superspecies”, including the subspecies atlantis , brunea, silvanus , suturalis, and veneris. The only European record of this species from Portugal was published by Henin et al. (2001).

Leptothorax angustulus silvanus View in CoL was described from Algeria ( Msila Forest, Oran) initially considered by Forel (1907) as an “intermediate” form between T. convexus View in CoL and T. trabutii View in CoL (the latter considered a subspecies of T. angustulus View in CoL ). However, Cagniant & Espadaler (1997) moved it into synonymy with T. algiricus View in CoL , not providing an explanation. Galkowski & Cagniant (2017) treated it as a subspecies of the “superspecies ” atlantis View in CoL .

Leptothorax kiudiria View in CoL was described from Morocco (Bab Besene, Rif) and exclusively compared to T. trabutii View in CoL in its description ( Cagniant & Espadaler 1997), while Galkowski & Cagniant (2017) state that it is separated from T. continentalis View in CoL and the “superspecies ” atlantis View in CoL because of longer scapi and declivous propodeum.

Leptothorax normandi atlantis suturalis Santschi, 1918 is an unavailable infrasubspecific name ( Santschi 1918). Santschi (1918) described this variety from Morocco (Aïn Leuch, Fès-Meknès) stating that it differed from atlantis View in CoL by having brighter colors. Galkowski & Cagniant (2017) use the first available name of T. atlantis suturalis , which they consider as part of the “superspecies ” atlantis View in CoL .

Temnothorax continentalis View in CoL was described from France by Galkowski & Cagniant (2017), who separated it from the “superspecies ” atlantis View in CoL by considering it more strongly bicolored and by the presence of a clypeal carina.

Comments. The description of T. continentalis by Galkowski & Cagniant (2017) fundamentally improved the understanding of this species in Europe by separating it from T. angustulus and T. algiricus (under T. mediterraneus ). However, their separation of the European populations as T. continentalis and those of North Africa as the “superspecies ” atlantis was dismissed by our morphometric analyses; furthermore, contrary to what was suggested by the dichotomic key in Galkowski & Cagniant (2017), T. atlantis populations of North Africa appear usually bicolored (with only the silvanus types being uniformly dark) and do not differ from the European counterparts concerning the clypeal carina. The “superspecies” concept adopted by Galkowski & Cagniant (2017) is not endorsed in modern ant taxonomy ( Oberski et al. 2025). The subspecies silvanus and suturalis that Galkowski & Cagniant (2017) established appear to be synonyms of atlantis in our analyses. Finally, the same applies to kiudiria , apparently described from large-sized T. atlantis workers; our data dismiss the idea that T. kiudiria has exceptionally longer scapi or that a propodeal declivity is a distinctive characteristic. Biogeographically, the distribution of T. atlantis mirrors that of many West Mediterranean ants that occur continuously through North Africa (at least in the Western Maghreb), Iberia, and southern France across the Gibraltar strait, like Aphaenogaster dulcineae Emery, 1924 , Camponotus sylvaticus (Olivier, 1792) or Messor barbarus (Linnaeus, 1767) ( Guénard et al. 2017) . A worker from Spain (Málaga, Adalusia; CASENT0914411) currently listed as T. mediterraneus on AntWeb belongs to T. atlantis .

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Hymenoptera

Family

Formicidae

Genus

Temnothorax

Loc

Temnothorax atlantis ( Santschi, 1911 )

Schifani, Enrico, Menchetti, Mattia, Csősz, Sándor & Vila, Roger 2025
2025
Loc

Temnothorax atlantis suturalis

Galkowski & Cagniant 2017
2017
Loc

Temnothorax continentalis

Galkowski & Cagniant 2017
2017
Loc

T. continentalis

Galkowski & Cagniant 2017
2017
Loc

T. atlantis suturalis

Galkowski & Cagniant 2017
2017
Loc

Temnothorax continentalis

Galkowski & Cagniant 2017
2017
Loc

Leptothorax kiudiria

Espadaler 1997
1997
Loc

Leptothorax kiudiria

Espadaler 1997
1997
Loc

Leptothorax normandi atlantis

Santschi 1911
1911
Darwin Core Archive (for parent article) View in SIBiLS Plain XML RDF