Ant genus Strongylognathus (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in Bulgaria: a preliminary review Author Lapeva-Gjonova, Albena https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0811-0768 Sofia University, Sofia, Bulgaria gjonova@gmail.com Author Radchenko, Alexander G. Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine text Biodiversity Data Journal 2021 2021-05-21 9 65742 65742 http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.9.e65742 journal article http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.9.e65742 1314-2828-9-e65742 03BF3239973D5975B25AE05E7A5597F0 Strongylognathus afer Emery, 1884 Strongylognathus afer Emery, 1884: 380, q, Algeria; Forel 1900 : 279, w (in Key); Santschi 1910 : 71, m; Emery 1909 : 711; all subsequent authors. Strongylognathus afer Emery, 1884: 380, q, Algeria; Forel 1900 : 279, w (in Key); Santschi 1910 : 71, m; Emery 1909 : 711; all subsequent authors. Materials Type status: Other material . Occurrence : recordedBy: A. Lapeva-Gjonova ; individualCount: 19 ; sex: workers ; Taxon : scientificName: Strongylognathus afer; order: Hymenoptera ; family: Formicidae ; genus: Strongylognathus ; taxonRank: Species ; Location : country: Bulgaria ; stateProvince: Haskovo ; municipality: Madzharovo ; locality: Eastern Rhodopes , Gaberovo vill. ; minimumElevationInMeters: 535; locationRemarks: on the border of light oak forest, in a nest of Tetramorium hungaricum Roeszler , 1935; decimalLatitude: 41.6297 ; decimalLongitude: 25.8940 ; Event : eventDate: 10-04-2013 ; Record Level: collectionCode: BFUS; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen Description SEM images: Fig. 7 Conservation Vulnerable D2 ver. 2.3 ( IUCN 2021 ) Taxon discussion Strongylognathus afer was described by Emery (1884) , based on a single queen from Algeria, workers and males being later described from Algeria and Tunisia by Forel (1900) and Santschi (1910) , respectively; finally, Sanetra and Guesten (2001) recorded this species in many localities in Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. Strongylognathus afer , in all studied sites, infested colonies of Tetramorium semilaeve Andre, 1883 ( Sanetra and Guesten 2001 ). Workers of this species are very small, the propodeum bearing small and blunt tubercles instead of sharp dents and the head dorsum and mesosoma are generally smooth and shiny ( Forel 1900 , Sanetra and Guesten 2001 ). One nest sample of workers, together with the host species T. hungaricum , was collected in the Eastern Rhodopes on the border of light oak forest and a pasture with a southern exposure (Fig. 4) at an altitude about 550 m. Collected workers morphologically fit well with the main characteristic features of S. afer , but are even smaller than the specimens from Algeria and Morocco, as well as workers of S. minutus Radchenko, 1991 and, apparently, are the smallest known workers of the Strongylognathus huberi species-group (compare Table 1 and data in Radchenko 1991 and Sanetra and Guesten 2001 ).