New records of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from Iran.
Author
Paknia, O.
Author
Radchenko, A.
Author
Pfeiffer, M.
text
Asian Myrmecology
2010
3
29
38
http://antbase.org/ants/publications/23045/23045.pdf
journal article
23045
Pyramica
sp. ir-golestan-01 and ir-ghaemshahr- 01 (argiola-group)
Material: 1 $,
Caspian Hyrcanian mixed forests, Ghaemshahr
(
36°22'16''N
,
52°50'53''E
), 155 m asl.,
4.VI.2008
, leg.
Omid Paknia
.;
1 $, Caspian
Hyrcanian mixed forests, Golestan National Park
(
37°24'04''N
,
55°48'04''E
), 520 m asl,
11.VI.2008
, leg.
Omid Paknia
.
Remarks: In the last ten years, the systematics of the tribe
Dacetini
, to which
Pyramica Roger
belongs, was cardinally changed. First of all, Bolton (1999) revived the name
Pyramica
from synonymy and proposed to consider it as a senior synonym of more than 20 generic names. A year later, he published a huge taxonomic revision of this tribe, describing several hundred
new species
(Bolton 2000). As a result,
Pyramica
is now one of the world 's biggest ant genera that includes more than 300 species; its range encompasses the whole world, with the overwhelming majority of species distributed in the tropics. This genus is new to Iran.
Several
Pyramica
species were recorded from the Mediterranean region of Europe and Africa, the Middle East, Anatolia and the Transcaucasus, while it is not yet known from Central Asia (e.g., Arakelyan & Dlussky 1991; Arakelyan 1994; Bolton et al. 2006; Radchenko 2007).
It is necessary to note that in the latest revision of the tribe
Dacetini
(Baroni Urbani & De Andrade 2007), the name
Pyramica
is considered a junior synonym of
Strumigenys
, but in this paper, we retain
Pyramica
until there is a definitive opinion on this question.