Formica minor GoSSWALD 1951

• Main Author: Seifert, Bernhard
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Arthropoda; Insecta; Hymenoptera; Formicidae; Formica; Formica minor; Fennoscandia; Siberia
• Online Access: https://zenodo.org/record/5587861; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5587861

Formica minor GÖSSWALD, 1951 Formica minor GÖSSWALD, 1951 [description] This taxon was described from near Würzburg / Germany. GÖSSWALD (1951) apparently did not define type specimens but everything he reported in his lengthy treatise makes clear that he meant Formica polyctena. All material examined. The full set of numeric phenotypical data was recorded in 58 nest samples with 314 workers and 33 gynes; for details, see SI1, SI2, and SI3. The total number of mounted samples stored in SMN Görlitz and investigated either subjectively or by partial or complete numeric recording of the phenotypical characters used here was 69. These included 329 workers and 32 gynes and originated from Belgium (one), Finland (10), France (one), Germany (45), Poland (one), Russia (four), and Switzerland (seven). Character recording in ethanol-stored material according to the former investigation protocol of SEIFERT (1991) was done until the year 1993 in further 176 nest samples with about 1800 workers largely from Germany and the Moscow region. Geographic range. Whole range apparently similar to that of Formica rufa: Iberia to Lake Baikal. The clearly confirmed occurrence in Europe extends between 42° N und 61° N; absent from British Isles, Asia Minor and Caucasus. The northern distributional border in Fennoscandia and Siberia and the upper altitudinal limit in Central European mountains are not exactly known because of frequent confusion with Formica aquilonia and occurrence of F. aquilonia × polyctena hybrid populations. The putative northern limit in Finland is at 63° N or along the -10 °C January isotherm. Natural distribution in the Giant Mountains (Czechia) up to 800 m (here artificially introduced at 1020 m), in the Alps ascending to 1200 m at least. Diagnosis of worker (Tab. 1, key). Clearly smaller than Formica rufa, mean and maximum CS over all social types 1669 and 2067µm. Scape rather long and slender, SL / CS 1750 0.932, SL / Smax 1750 9.97. Setae on eyes short, EyeHL 1750 17µm; on posterior margin of head nearly always ...