Species: Tetramorium caespitum   (Linnaeus, 1758) 

Current Valid Name:

Taxonomic History (provided by Barry Bolton, 2023)

Distribution:

Distribution Notes:

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:

Taxonomic Treatment (provided by Plazi)

Specimen Habitat Summary

Found most commonly in these habitats: 247 times found in Unknown, 199 times found in heathlands, 0 times found in mixed oak forest, rocky loam soil, nest in soil, brood in nest, 87 times found in dry grassland, 86 times found in anthropogenic, 0 times found in sagebrush, cheek grass, light brown, fine, sandy clay, after 1 hour, 31 times found in dunes & inland dunes, 29 times found in Forest, 24 times found in Rocks (rocky-calcareous grasslands), 14 times found in oak forest, loam soil, nest under medium stone, brood in nest, ...

Found most commonly in these microhabitats: 5 times under stone, 4 times in house, 3 times grassy mound, 1 times ex grass covered mound, 3 times soil mound, 3 times ground nest, 2 times flat tile in clay soil, 2 times city pavement, 2 times under rock, 2 times beach sand around marsh, 1 times in modern high rise building 21st floor, ...

Collected most commonly using these methods: 345 times pitfall trap, 135 times Manual catch, 0 times Vienna sausage bait, 0 times pitfall trap, 14 hour, nite, 21 times search, 16 times Malaise trap, 5 times Color trap, 5 times Hand, 4 times light trap, 2 times pitfall, 2 times Pyramid trap, ...

Elevations: collected from 26 - 2250 meters, 929 meters average

Collect Date Range: collected between 1866-05-05 00:00:00.0 and 2022-07-19 00:00:00.0

Type specimens: cotype of Tetramorium caespitum: casent0917265; Holotype of Tetramorium caespitum: casent0741035, casent0741036, casent0741037; neotype of Formica caespitum: casent0919632; Not Provided: casent0742324; syntype of Tetramorium caespitum fusciclavum: antweb1008487; syntype of Tetramorium caespitum hammi: casent0901252; syntype of Tetramorium caespitum himalayanum: casent0913996, casent0917058, casent0917059, casent0917060; syntype of Tetramorium caespitum himalayanum: casent0904814; type of Tetramorium caespitum himalayanum: focol0193, focol0194, focol0195, focol0196, focol0200, focol0201, focol2021, focol2107, focol2018-1, focol2018-2, focol2019-1, focol2019-2, focol2020-1, focol2020-2