Morphometric Characteristics of Formica aquilonia Ants in Monitoring of Their Settlements

摘要

The variability of size, chaetotaxy, the petiole shape, and mandible dentition in workers of F. aquilonia was studied in the Verkhnyaya Klyazma Myrmecological Preserve (Moscow Province, Russia), where populations of red wood ants (F. aquilonia, F. polyctena, and F. lugubris) have been monitored since 1966. Comparative analysis of samples from two different F. aquilonia settlements (Al and A21S) showed that workers from A1 had a smaller size and more abundant pilosity. The variability of the molar margin of the mandibles was similar in the two settlements while the petiole shape differed. Comparison of three generations of workers from Al (the seasons of 1969, 1986, and 1992) revealed significant changes in their phenotype (a decrease in size and anincrease in pilosity and asymmetry) which coincided with the settlement degradation after mass destruction of ant nests by poachers, wild boars, and woodpeckers in 1977-1985.