590 Tiere (Zoologie)
Refine
Document Type
- Article (1)
- Part of Periodical (1)
Language
- English (2) (remove)
Has Fulltext
- yes (2)
Is part of the Bibliography
- no (2)
Keywords
- species-groups (2) (remove)
Contrary to what its name suggests, Nemesia arboricola is not strictly arboreal in habit. Here we compare female specimens of N. arboricola collected from arboreal and terrestrial nests. We furthermore describe the male of N. arboricola for the first time as well as two recently discovered species of Nemesia (N. maltensis sp. nov. and N. cominensis sp. nov.). Nemesia maltensis is described from both sexes, N. cominensis is described from the female and a juvenile male specimen. For N. cominensis we discuss the sexual dimorphism of juvenile male and female spiders. Field observations and laboratory observations show remarkable features of the Maltese Nemesia fauna that are unknown from Nemesia species found elsewhere. Particularly, the arboreal dwellings of N. arboricola and the absence of a trapdoor to close off the burrow entrance in N. maltensis appear to be exceptional. The composition of the Maltese Nemesia fauna, as located in the central Mediterranean, is finally discussed in relation to the different Nemesia species-complexes occurring in the eastern and western Mediterranean basin.
We revise the species-level taxonomy of the Crematogaster (Crematogaster) degeerispecies-assemblage, a group of related ants occuring in Madagascar and the wider Malagasy region, and further provide an identification key to all species-groups of the genus Crematogaster in this region. Within the C. degeeri-assemblage, we recognize twelve species based upon morphological data from worker, queen and male ants, as well as genetic data from the barcode region of cytochrome oxidase I. Seven new species are described: Crematogaster alafara Blaimer sp. nov., C. bara Blaimer sp. nov., C. mafybe Blaimer sp. nov., C.maina Blaimer sp. nov., C. malahelo Blaimer sp. nov., C. masokely Blaimer sp. nov., C. ramamy Blaimer sp. nov. Crematogaster tricolor Gerstäcker, 1859 (stat. rev.) and C. dentata Dalla Torre, 1893 (stat. nov.) are raised to species level, and the following new synonymies are proposed: Crematogaster degeeri lunaris Santschi, 1928 as a synonym of C. degeeri Forel, 1886; Crematogaster sewelli improba Forel, 1907 and C. sewelli mauritiana Forel, 1907 as synonyms of C. dentata Dalla Torre, 1893, and C. pacifi ca Santschi, 1919 as a synonym of C. lobata Emery, 1895. Species descriptions, images, and distribution maps and identification keys based on worker ants, as well as on queen ants where available, are presented for all twelve species. In addition, we present a molecular gene tree for cytochrome oxidase I and summarize levels of sequence divergence within and between species of the C. degeeri-species-assemblage. Our findings are discussed in the light of previous work on Malagasy Crematogaster ants.