Introduction to some ant's fauna (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) and associated mesostigmatic mites (Acari: Mesostigmata) in Khuzestan and Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Provinces

Abstract

Ants are one of the most successful and abundant groups of insects, which due to their high reproductive and wide distribution, have a very large population in different parts of the world. In order to study these insects and associated mesostigmatic mites in some parts of Khuzestan and Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Provinces, samples were collected from different habitats during 2019–2020. Totally, 21 species belonging to 3 subfamilies, Dolichoderinae (1 genus and 2 species), Formicinae (6 genus and 12 species), Myrmicinae (5 genus and 7 species), and 59 species belonging to 12 families of Mesostigmata were collected. Among them, Gamasellodes minor Athias, 1961 and Gaeolaelaps neoaculeifer (Hirschman, 1966) are reported for the first time from Iran, and two families and 15 species are new records for the Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province, which are marked with two and one asterisk (s) in Table 2, respectively.

Keywords

• iran؛ ant
• mesostigmata؛ fauna