@article {1805, title = {Temnothorax crasecundus sp. n. {\textendash} a cryptic Eurocaucasian ant species (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) discovered by Nest Centroid Clustering}, journal = {ZooKeys}, volume = {479}, year = {2015}, pages = {37-64}, abstract = {

The paper integrates two independent studies of numeric morphology-based alpha-taxonomy of the cryptic ant species Temnothorax crassispinus (Karavajev, 1926) and T. crasecundus sp. n. conducted by different investigators, using different equipment, considering different character combinations and evaluating different samples. Samples investigated included 603 individual workers from 203 nests \– thereof 104 nest samples measured by Seifert and 99 by Cs\ösz. The material originated from Europe, Asia Minor and Caucasia. There was a very strong interspecific overlap in any of the 29 shape characters recorded and subjective expert determination failed in many cases. Primary classification hypotheses were formed by the exploratory data analysis Nest Centroid (NC) clustering and corrected to final species hypotheses by an iterative linear discriminant analysis algorithm. The evaluation of Seifert\’s and Cs\ösz\’s data sets arrived at fully congruent conclusions. NC-Ward and NC-K-means clustering disagreed from the final species hypothesis in only 1.9 and 1.9\% of the samples in Seifert\’s data set and by 1.1 and 2.1\% in Cs\ösz\’s data set which is a strong argument for heterospecificity. The type series of T. crassispinus and T. crasecundus sp. n. were allocated to different clusters with p = 0.9851 and p = 0.9912 respectively. The type series of the junior synonym T. slavonicus (Seifert, 1995) was allocated to the T. crassispinus cluster with p = 0.9927. T. crasecundus sp. n. and T. crassispinus are parapatric species with a long contact zone stretching from the Peloponnisos peninsula across Bulgaria northeast to the southern Ukraine. There is no indication for occurrence of interspecifically mixed nests or intraspecific polymorphism. However, a significant reduction of interspecific morphological distance at sites with syntopic occurrence of both species indicates local hybridization. The results are discussed within the context of the Pragmatic Species Concept of Seifert (2014). The taxonomic description and a differential diagnosis of T. crasecundus sp. n. are given.

}, keywords = {hybridization, intraspecific dimorphism, Numeric morphology-based alpha-taxonomy, parapatric species, Pragmatic Species Concept}, doi = {10.3897/zookeys.479.8510}, author = {Seifert, Bernhard and Cs{\H o}sz, S{\'a}ndor} } @article {1796, title = {Cryptic diversity in the Mediterranean Temnothorax lichtensteini species complex (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)}, journal = {Organisms Diversity \& Evolution}, year = {2013}, pages = {1-14}, abstract = {

In this paper we provide insight into the cryptic diversity and biogeographic patterns of a widely distributed Mediterranean ant species, Temnothorax lichtensteini (Bondroit Annales de la Soci\ét\é Entomologique de France 87:1\–174, 1918), based on evidence from multiple data sources. An exploratory analysis of morphometric data, combined with sequencing of a 652 bp fragment of the mitochondrial gene for
the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (CO I), indicates the existence of three distinct lineages. Divergence of two recognised genetic lineages, Western and Eastern Mediterranean clusters, is not reliably supported by confirmatory analysis of morphological data. We hypothesise that this reflects incomplete speciation in separate glacial refugia and therefore discuss only biogeographic aspects of these two parapatric populations. However, the third, Peloponnese, lineage is divergent in both morphology and CO I sequences and its separation from the other two lineages is convincingly confirmed. For this lineage we assume a completed speciation and describe the taxon formally as Temnothorax laconicus sp.n., the sister species of T. lichtensteini.

}, keywords = {Biogeography, Cryptic species, Exploratory data analysis, Integrative taxonomy, Morphometrics, taxonomy}, doi = {10.1007/s13127-013-0153-3}, author = {Cs{\H o}sz, S{\'a}ndor and Seifert, Bernhard and M{\"u}ller, Benedikt and Trindl, Andreas and Schulz, Andreas and Heinze, J{\"u}rgen} }