Vera Antonova

Catalogue of the ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) of Bulgaria

Abstract The present catalogue of the ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) of Bulgaria is made on a base of critical reconsideration of literature (covering the period from 1892 till 2009 and part of 2010) as well as on examination of the authors‘ and several museum‘s collections. A lot of data were omitted in the previous Bulgarian monograph on ants, lots of new data were recently added and many important additions and alterations were made due to taxonomic revisions of Eurasian Formicidae during the last three decades. Two new species are reported for the country [Temnothorax graecus (Forel, 1911) and Temnothorax cf. korbi (Emery, 1924)]. This catalogue contains a list of 163 ant species belonging to 40 genera of 6 subfamilies now known from Bulgaria. Synonyms and information on the previously reported names in relevant publications are given. Known localities of the species are grouped by geographic regions. Maps with concrete localities or regions for each species were prepared. The conservation status of 13 ant species is given as they are included in IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and Bulgarian Biodiversity Act. In comparison with adjacent Balkan regions the ant fauna of Bulgaria is quite rich and its core is composed of South European elements.

Banning paraphylies and executing Linnaean taxonomy is discordant and reduces the evolutionary and semantic information content of biological nomenclature

In a recent issue of Systematic Entomology, Ward et al. (2015) presented a new variant of the phylogeny of the huge and extremely diverse ant clade Myrmicinae. Their paper is a valuable contribution to understand the formation of major phylogenetic clades against a credibly evaluated time scale. The intention of our opinion paper is not to criticize particular ‘‘technical’’ aspects, such as selection of genes or number and selection of species considered to be representative for a tribe. Instead this opinion is of a very general nature: we express our growing concern about a severe reduction of the semantic content and functionality of zoological nomenclature and our doubts that phylogenetic classification can adequately reflect the information content of evolution. The concern comes from the fundamental position of phylogenetic systematists of stringently translating the monophyly criterion into binominal nomenclature regardless of the consequences for practical research. This position was expressed by Ward et al. (2015):

Myrmica lacustris Ruzsky (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), an ant species new for Poland

A rare and poorly known ant species, Myrmica lacustris Ruzsky, belonging to the schencki-group, isreported from Poland for the first time. The taxonomic history of the name and current knowledge of the distribution and ecology of this species are summarised. The characteristic morphological features of M. lacustris are illustratedand a key for separating this taxon from the two morphologically similar species is given.

Collapse of the invasive garden ant, Lasius neglectus, populations in four European countries

The invasive garden ant Lasius neglectus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) has been spreading rapidly in Europe ever since the 1990s. This ant established enormous supercolonies in many European cities and poses a serious threat to the local native faunas. The spread of this species has not slowed down in the last decades, but in the recent years the sizes of the known L. neglectus populations have generally been declining or have stagnated. For 29 supercolonies checked in four countries, in 10 cases L. neglectus individuals have not been found on the former area of their occurrence. On the other hand, only two supercolonies have expanded. In this paper, we summarize these monitoring data collected by the personal independent, diligent monitoring activities of myrmecologists on populations of the invasive garden ant in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Spain. The reasons for this collapse are thought to be: (1) depletion of the local resources, (2) gradation of pathogens and (social)parasites, (3) climatic factors, (4) intra-population mechanisms, (5) confrontation with highly competitive native species, and (6) lack of suitable nesting microhabitats. As similar phenomena were observed in the cases of supercolonies of other invasive ant species, it seems that they decline more generally than has been thought.

Terrestrial gastropods of Srebarna Nature Reserve, North-Eastern Bulgaria (Gastropoda).

Abstract We give the results from the first investigation focused on the land snail fauna in Srebarna Nature Reserve in Bulgaria. A total of 23 localities were studied and 27 species of terrestrial gastropods were found, 23 of which were new observations for the Reserve.