Wouter DEKONINCK, Philippe WEGNEZ, and François VANKERKHOVEN (2022)
First records for Belgium of the ant species Myrmica vandeli Bondroit, 1920 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
Bulletin de la Société royale belge d'Entomologie / Bulletin van de Koninklijke Belgische Vereniging voor Entomologie, 158:19–24.
We report the first observations of Myrmica vandeli Bondroit, 1920 for Belgium. The species
was found in an oligotrophic, undisturbed wet grassland in Richtenberg, Burg-Reuland in 2011
and 2021. This Myrmica species is rare in Europe and restricted to open wet meadows, swamps,
fens and peatlands. Myrmica vandeli is added to the ant fauna of Belgium which now numbers
12 Myrmica species. It is possible that M. vandeli specimens were previously confused with
specimens of its sister species Myrmica scabrinodis Nylander, 1846. Hence we suggest to
revise all M. scabrinodis samples from the south-eastern part of Belgium (from Hautes Fagnes
south to Luxembourg) as it is possible that M. vandeli was left unnoticed before and identified
as M. scabrinodis.
Peer Review, Open Access, PDF available, RBINS Collection(s)
Formicidae, new Belgian species, Burg-Reuland, wet oligotrophic meadow
- ISSN: 1374-8297
Document Actions