Ants of the genus Cardiocondyla from Georgia.
2022
The ant genus Cardiocondyla is particularly interesting genus, with about 100 widely differed species in habitat preference, nesting sites, queen number and mating frequency, and also male reproductive tactics. They are tiny ants with a body size of only 1.5-3 mm and their small colonies live in the soil, rock crevices, or dead twigs. Typical Cardiocondyla colonies are polygynous, consisting of a few-dozen queens, some or hundreds of workers and several males. Cardiocondyla genus is characterised by the presence of wingless (ergatoid) males in almost all its known species except C. zoserka. The ant genus Cardiocondyla is characterised by a high variability of reproductive life histories and colony structures. Little is known about the Cardiocondyla stambuloffii group. We here present data of the colony structure of Cardiocondyla colonies from different parts of Georgia, which shows that they are monogynous. According to PCA, which was performed based on the results of morphomedrics done on the specimens from Georgia, Kazakhstan, Russia and Bulgaria, Georgian individuals did not clearly cluster neither with C. koshewnikovi from Kazakhstan, nor with C. stambuloffii from Russia and Bulgaria. They performed three different clusters, which gives us presumption that individuals of Cardiocondyla sp. from Georgia might be different, new species for Georgia, though it needs further investigations. Tab. 4, Fig. 1, Ref. 17.
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