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Tetramorium caespitum_cf, Tetramorium caespitum_cf_gr01, Tetramorium caespitum_cf_gr02, Tetramorium caespitum_cf_gr03, Tetramorium caespitum_cf_gr04, Tetramorium caespitum_cf_gr06, Tetramorium caespitum_cf_gr07, Tetramorium caespitum_cf_gr10, Tetramorium caespitum_cf_gr11, Tetramorium caespitum_cf_gr21, Tetramorium caespitum_cf_gr22, Tetramorium caespitum_cf_gr23, Tetramorium caespitum_cf_gr24, Tetramorium caespitum_cf_gr25, Tetramorium caespitum_cf_gr26, Tetramorium caespitum_cf_gr27, Tetramorium caespitum_cf_spe, Tetramorium caespitum barabense, Tetramorium caespitum caespitomoravicum, Tetramorium caespitum flavidulum, Tetramorium caespitum japonicum, Tetramorium caespitum pallidum, Tetramorium caespitum typicum

Taxonomic History (provided by Barry Bolton, 2017)

Distribution:

(based on species list records)   Species is introduced to: Afrotropical, Antarctica, Australasia, Indomalaya, Malagasy, Nearctic, Neotropical, Oceania bioregions.

Afrotropical Region: Africa, Cameroon, Eastern Africa, Eastern Cape, Kakamega, Kenya, South Africa, Southern Africa
Indomalaya Region: Asia, India, Nepal, Southern Asia
Nearctic Region: Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North America, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, United States, Utah, Virginia, Washington
Neotropical Region: Americas, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, South America, Valparaíso
Palearctic Region: Afghanistan, Albania, Alicante, Armenia, Austria, Balearic Islands, Belarus, Belgium, Brussels Capital, Bulgaria, Channel Islands, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, East Flanders, Eastern Asia, Emilia-Romagna, Estonia, Europe, Finland, Flemish Brabant, France, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Hainaut, Himachal Pradesh, Hovedstaden, Hungary, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jersey, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Liguria, Limburg, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Luxembourg, Macaronesia, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Namur, Netherlands, North Korea, Northern Europe, Norway, Poland, Rogaland, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Skåne, Slovakia, Southern Europe, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Walloon Brabant, West Flanders, Western Europe, Zurich

Distribution Notes:

Holarctic, America to Japan, North Africa to North Europe including British Isles

Biology:

Prefers grassland, especially steppe and rock steppe, also urban. Nests in soil, under rocks and in small loam hills.

Observation by J. Longino, 22 Mar 2012. This observation relates to whichever cryptic species of this complex inhabits Salt Lake City, Utah. The city has massive battles on the sidewalks. The first warm day of the season, above 15C, was on 15 Mar and I saw the first battle. Sometimes these battles seem to be a matter of grappling only, with very few casualties. But today was different. At 6:00pm I saw a mass of workers on the sidewalk. They were in a roughly circular patch over a sidewalk crack, a dense mass of grappling workers several ants deep, the circular mass around 20cm dia. A column of workers extended from the mass, about 1.5m long, through the grass at the side of the sidewalk to another crack. I returned at 7:30pm and found a triangular patch of more thinly spread workers, in an area of about 400 square cm. There was a low density of live workers, but most of the layer was dead workers, most of them dismembered. I counted the number of dead workers in a 2x2cm patch, got 60 workers, an estimated 6000 dead workers in the patch.

 

By James Trager:  This is the famous pavement ant, long known as T. caespitum. It is a very common, yet apparently undescribed component of the urban ant fauna of Europe, North America and temperate Argentina. Tetramorium sp. E also occurs in xeric, sandy or rocky natural areas. It is host to three famous parasitic ant genera, Harpagoxenus, Anergates, Teleutomyrmex; these ranging from dulotic grading into inquilinous with workers, to workerless inquilinous, to ectoparasitic(!), respectively. The diet consists of any sort of dead animal matter and seeds, with occasional honeydew-gathering. Tetramorium sp. E has been displaced in some Missouri locations in recent decades, especially in the St. Louis region and adjacent portions of Illinois, by T. tsushimae. 

Notes:

Established

Taxonomic Treatment (provided by Plazi)

Specimen Habitat Summary

Found most commonly in these habitats: 0 times found in Unknown, 0 times found in heathlands, 0 times found in dry grassland, 0 times found in Anthropogenic, 0 times found in dunes & inland dunes, 0 times found in Forest, 0 times found in Rocks (rocky-calcareous grasslands), 0 times found in shrubs, 0 times found in Wet grassland, 7 times found in shrub steppe, ...

Found most commonly in these microhabitats: 9 times under stone, 1 times active foragers on tree, ground, 2 times nest under stone, 1 times ex grass covered mound, 2 times ex sifted leaf litter, 1 times cement crack in between garage door and driveway, 2 times sagebrush, 1 times roadside, 1 times foragers on ground, 1 times foragers, 1 times combination of all ants collected for BioBlitz, ...

Collected most commonly using these methods: 0 times Pitfall trap, 0 times Manual catch, 30 times search, 0 times Malaise trap, 5 times Hand, 0 times Color trap, 0 times light trap, 0 times In house, 0 times Grassy mound, 1 times Under rock, 1 times mixed, ...

Elevations: collected from 5 - 1870 meters, 705 meters average

Type specimens: Holotype: casent0741035, casent0741036, casent0741037; Lectotype of Tetramorium caespitum immigrans: casent0913997; neotype of Formica caespitum: casent0919632; syntype of Rhoptromyrmex transversinodis: casent0916086; syntype of Tetramorium caespitum fusciclava: antweb1008486, antweb1008487; syntype of Tetramorium caespitum hammi: casent0901252; syntype of Tetramorium caespitum himalayanum: casent0913996; syntype of Tetramorium caespitum himalayanum: casent0904814; type of Tetramorium caespitum subsp. himalayanum: focol0193, focol0194, focol0195, focol0196, focol0200, focol0201, focol2021, focol2107, focol2018-1, focol2018-2, focol2019-1, focol2019-2, focol2020-1, focol2020-2

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