New data on the ant fauna (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Azerbaijan

Abstract

Ants of Azerbaijan are relatively poorly known compared to other parts of the Caucasus area and Europe. To improve the knowledge of the ant fauna, we performed field sampling in 2017, including different habitats extending throughout the country. We collected data on ants from 46 localities, and identified 73 species all together, of which 30 present new records for Azerbaijan, i.e., Camponotus lateralis (Olivier, 1792), Cardiocondyla brachyceps Seifert, 2003, C. stambuloffii Forel, 1892, Formica cunicularia Latreille, 1798, F. georgica Seifert, 2002, Lasius bombycina Seifert et Galkowski, 2016, L. illyricus Zimmermann, 1935, L. neglectus/turcicus complex, L. obscuratus Stitz, 1930, L. platythorax Seifert, 1991, L. cf. platythorax, Lepisiota syriaca (André, 1881), Myrmica salina Ruzsky, 1905, M. specioides Bondroit, 1918, Myrmoxenus cf.ravouxi, Plagiolepis arnoldii Dlussky, Soyunov et Zabelin, 1990, P. perperamus Salata, Borowiec et Radchenko, 2018, Ponera testacea Emery, 1895, Proformica epinotalis Kuznetsov-Ugamsky, 1927, Tapinoma magnum Mayr, 1861, Temnothorax interruptus (Schenck, 1852), T. parvulus (Schenck, 1852), T. cf. recedens, T. tauricus (Ruzsky, 1902), Tetramorium cf. caespitum, T. caucasicum Wagner, Arthofer, Seifert, Muster, Steiner et SchlickSteiner, 2017, T. chefketi Forel, 1911, T. indocile Santschi, 1927, T. moravicum Novák et Sadil, 1941, and T. sulcinode Santschi, 1927.

Keywords

• Hymenoptera
• Formicidae
• faunistics
• new records
• Azerbaijan
• Caucasus