Myrmica gallieni Bondroit

3. Myrmica gallieni Bondroit, 1920 Figs. 28,46,65.

Myrmica gallieni Bondroit, 1920:302.

Myrmica rugulosa subsp. limanica Arnoldi, 1934:162.

Myrmica jacobsoni Kutter, 1963:133.

Myrmica bergi Ruzsky; Sadil, 1951 (misidentification).

Worker. Light to dark reddish brown. Antennal scapes slender, obliquely curved near the base. Head and alitrunk longitudinally striate; frontal triangle with striae at apex and lower portion smooth, somewhat shining. Propodeal spines thin, space between their bases smooth. Mesopropodeal furrow deep. Petiole with short truncate dorsal area. Postpetiole higher than wide. Head Index: 84.1, Frons Index: 43.8, Frontal Laminae Index: 90.3. Length: 4.5-5.0 mm.

Queen. Dark reddish brown. Sculpture, antennae, propodeal spines and pedicel as worker; distinguished from pale examples of M. sulcinodis by the short truncate petiole. Length: 6.0-6.5 mm.

Male. Brownish black. Scape short, straight equal to 3 following segments, second funiculus segment nearly twice as long as wide. Propodeum bluntly tuberculate. Petiole high with a long anterior face, postpetiole distinctly higher than wide in side view. Tarsal hairs on extensor surface longer than those on underside. Length: 5.5-6.0 mm.

Distribution: Very local. Denmark: LFM, R0dby, sand dunes (leg. Collingwood, 1963, 1974). - Sweden: Gotland (H. Lohmander leg. 1934). - Finland: N, Taktom. - Range: France to Western USSR, Czechoslovakia to Baltic, local.

Biology. In general behavior it appears to resemble M. rubra (L.) being somewhat aggressive and stinging freely. In the R0dby dunes it was nesting deep in the ground with simple entrance holes. Its apparent decline at this site may be associated with its greater demand for high summer temperatures than that of the commoner N. European species which would tend to displace it. M. sabuleti Mein., M. scabrinodis Nyl., M. rubra (L.) were all present in the immediate vicinity of M. gallieni at R0dby in 1974.

Note. This interesting species was found in local abundance by Jacobson (1939) from a wide area of the North Baltic provinces and offshore islands where it was found colonising salt marsh and sand dune areas. Arnoldi (1934) gives similar situations for the Ukrainian salt marshes under the name of M. rugulosa subsp, limanica. In Czechoslovakia it was collected in the vicinity of Trebon near the lakes Opatovice and Svet and identified later by Sadil (1951) as M. bergi Ruzsky, a larger broadheaded species found in S. Russia, Turkestan and Iraq. Kramer (1950) gave a brief redescription of the worker (as M. gallieni) from sandy terrain in the Netherlands.

In Denmark and Fennoscandia it was first recognised in 1963 where it was found abundantly in a part of the coastal dune area near Redbyhavn in Lolland. By 1974 however the species had practically disappeared from the site. There is a series in the Goteborg Natural History Museum in the Hans Lohmander collection taken in July 1934 at Horsne on Gotland and it may be presumed that further collecting in coastal areas of S. Sweden and Denmark will reveal more records. There is also a series of workers in the Helsinki Natural History Museum from Taktom on the Hangko peninsula in Nylandia.