An Ant-mimicking Ant on an Oceanic Archipelago: Mimics -An Analogy with the Situation of (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Overview

Journal Ecol Evol

Date 2024 Aug 21

PMID 39165544

Authors

Antonio J Perez-Delgado

Herbert C Wagner

Affiliations

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Abstract

Mimicry, that is, the imitation of any unpalatable or defensive species by another, has been of central interest to evolutionary research since Darwin's lifetime. Two ant species, Santschi, 1908 and Emery, 1893, endemic to the Canary Islands, occur in two color-morphs: While the head of workers is always reddish and the gaster blackish, the mesosoma (inclusive waist) is either fully reddish or fully blackish. In addition to the obvious morphological and coloration similarities, we provide evidence of mimicry: (i) was found only within the area of . (ii) Color morphs are geographically non-randomly distributed: Workers of both species from 16 localities of syntopic occurrences shared in eight cases a blackish and in eight cases a reddish mesosoma. Hence, mimics both local color-morphs of . We consider a fascinating analogy with the Mediterranean mimicry system in (Olivier, 1792) and its model species of the (Olivier, 1792) group on an island scale. Additionally, we present two endemic bug species, (Ribes et al., 2008) and Roca-Cusachs & Goula, 2016, as mimics of those workers having a reddish mesosoma. Our distribution, coloration, frequency, and behavioral data as well as the analogy with and the group suggest a Batesian-mimicry system in which , , and mimic the unpalatable and aggressive as an antipredator adaptation.

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