Ants (Insecta, Hymenoptera, Formicidae) of the Lower Volga Region (Russia)
The source data of the database (as well as all materials on this site, source data is provided under the Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license ) can be obtained as follows:
Database (SQLite file). For a description of the structure of tables and their fields in the database, see below.
GeoJSON file (exact geometry of the locations). For a description of the structure of this file, see below.
GeoJSON file (geometry of the locations is approximated to the points).
 
About the Lower Volga region.
The Lower Volga Region is a region in the extreme south-east of European Russia, which includes the Republic of Kalmykia, Volgograd and Astrakhan Regions. Most of the territory of the Lower Volga Region is covered by steppes (Volgograd Oblast and the north of Astrakhan Oblast and Kalmykia) and deserts (southern part of the region). The region is crossed by the valleys of two major rivers, the Volga and the Don, and their inflows. These valleys have a lot of wetland and forest habitats. The relief of the Lower Volga Basin is flat, to the west of the Volga and Caspian Depression is rough, often with a large number of ravines, gorges, etc., often with ravine forests. The Caspian Depression covers almost the entire southern half of the Lower Volga Basin, its landscapes are deserts or dry steppes with a lot of salt marshes.
 
History of studying ants in the Lower Volga region
Researches on fauna of ants of the Lower Volga region have been started in XIX century and in the beginning of XX century have been summarized by Mikhail Dmitrievich Ruzsky in the book "Ants of Russia" (1905, 1905). A total of 48 species of ants in their modern concepts were mentioned by them for the Lower Volga region. Much of these references were based on material collected by him personally. Unfortunately, most of the Ruzsky's collection kept at Kazan University (where Ruzsky worked then) was probably lost afterwards. For this reason, many of his references cannot now be correctly interpreted.
Throughout the XX century, after the publication of Ruzsky's work, data on ants of the Lower Volga region were almost not updated. Only descriptions of some new species were published (Emery, 1925; Arnoldi, 1928, 1970). New fauna researches were started by me in Volgograd and Astrakhan’ regions and by Zh.V. Savranskaya in Kalmykia after 1995. Their result was an article published in 2002 (Grebennikov et al., 2002) in which 77 species of ants were listed for the Lower Volga region. Currently, the concept of many of the species listed in this article has changed significantly and some references need to be corrected. Unfortunately, the material on which the article was based has been left only in part, which sometimes makes it difficult to understand the current status of the references.
After a considerable break, I have been resuming my study of the Lower Volga Region myrmecofauna since 2007. These studies allowed me to clarify the distribution of many species in the region and enrich the list of known species. Some of the results of these studies were published by me earlier (Grebennikov, 2013, 2014; Grebennikov, Anikin, 2016; Grebennikov, Zryanin, 2017; Grebennikov, 2019).
The locations for which references of the ants are known, or specimens collected in them, are shown on the map:
 
Materials and methods
This catalogue is based mainly on literature references and my own collection of ants in the Lower Volga region (as well as material kindly provided by my colleagues). The collection and study of the material was made by all generally accepted and applicable research methods for this group.
 
About this catalogue
No doubt, the catalogue represents only the preliminary list of ants of the Lower Volga region with the description of known references and findings, and some critical notes.
Some areas of the region remain poorly studied. First of all, it is the north and west of Volgograd region, where many species are possible to find, which are not yet known in the Lower Volga region. The fauna of some groups (primarily Leptothorax and Myrmica genera) also remains poorly studied. The status and concepts of many taxa are not yet quite clear, as explained in the comments.
In preparing this catalogue, the concept of “cryptic species” separated by methods of “integrative taxonomy” was considered as insufficiently verified and not yet confirmed by field observations proving the biological isolation of such species. For this reason, many species are considered here in the wide “classical” interpretation. In each case, the necessary explanations are provided.
 
Acknowledgements
A lot of people have been helping me work on this project for many years. I consider it an onerous task to acknowledge their important contribution to this catalogue and to say thank them very much.
At the initial stage, E.V. Komarov (Volgograd), who introduced me to the world of entomology in my youth, was a great help in organizing this work. Some other colleagues from Volgograd (O.G. Brekhov and A.A. Sergeev) kindly provided their small collections of ants for study. Separately, I would like to thank the deceased D.M. Astakhov (also from Volgograd) who provided very interesting material included in this catalogue. From O.I. Broznov (Astrakhan’) I received small but also very interesting material from the Astrakhan’ region, and help in a short but very productive field trip.
The opportunity to consult and discuss work with colleagues, in particular, D.A. Dubovikov (St. Petersburg) and Z.M. Yusupov (Nal’chik), was of great importance to me.
Without a large number of people, my field trips and expeditions in the Lower Volga region would not have been possible. First of all, I would like to thank all employees of Bogdinsko-Baskunchaksky Nature Reserve who helped me during three years of work in this organization. In addition, I was also assisted in my work on the territory of the Astrakhansky Nature Reserve by the Reserve's researchers. I am sincerely grateful to M.V. Mokrousov (Nizhny Novgorod) for organizing the most interesting expeditions, in which I took part in the last few years, and for productive discussions on a wide range of scientific topics.
 
Literature mentioned above
Arnol'di, K. V. (1928) Studien über die Systematik der Ameisen. III. Rossomyrmex. Neue Gattung der Ameisen und ihre Beziehungen zu den anderen Gattungen der Formicidae. Zoologischer Anzeiger, 75, 299-310.
Arnol'di, K. V. (1970) New species and races of the ant genus Messor (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) [Novye vidy i rasy murav'ev roda Messor (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)]. Zoological Journal [Zoologicheskii Zhurnal], 49, 72-88.
Emery, C. (1889) Intorno ad alcune formiche della fauna paleartica. Annali del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale, 27, 439-443.
Emery, C. (1898) Beiträge zur Kenntniss der palaearktischen Ameisen. Öfversigt af Finska Vetenskaps-Societetens Förhandlingar, 20, 124-151.
Emery, C. (1925) Revision des espèces paléarctiques du genre Tapinoma. Revue Suisse de Zoologie, 32, 45-64.
Grebennikov, K. A. & Zryanin, V. A. (2017) Interesting records of the ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from Volga region and Dagestan [Interesnye nahodki murav'ev (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) iz Povolzh'ya i Dagestana]. Proceedings of the Russian Entomological Society [Trudy Russkogo Entomologicheskago Obshchestva], 88, 38–43.
Grebennikov, K. A. (2015) New records of ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in the Lower Volga region [Novye nahodki murav'ev (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) v Nizhnem Povolzh'e]. SCI-ARTICLE.RU. Available from: http://sci-article.ru/stat.php?i=1421406586 (11.02.2020).
Grebennikov, K. A. (2019) First records of Cardiocondyla sahlbergi Forel, 1913 (Insecta, Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in the Volga Region [Pervye nahodki Cardiocondyla Sahlbergi Forel, 1913 (Insecta, Hymenoptera, Formicidae) v Povolzh'e]. Entomological and parasitological studies in the Volga region [Jentomologicheskie i parazitologicheskie issledovanija v Povolzh'e], 46-48.
Grebennikov, K. A., Dubovikov, D. A. & Savranskaya, Zh. V. (2002) Ecological-faunistic characteristics of ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) of the Lower Volga region [Fauna i ekologicheskie osobennosti murav'ev (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) Nizhnego Povolzh'ya]. In: Biodiversity of Insects of the Southeast of the European Part of Russia [Bioraznoobrazie nasekomykh Yugo-Vostoka Evropeiskoi chasti Rossii]. Region. Tsentr po izucheniyu i sokhraneniyu bioraznoobraziya; Volgogradskoe otd. Rus. entomol. obshch., Volgograd, pp. 178–195.
Ruzsky, M. D. (1903) Essay on the myrmecofauna of the Kirghiz steppe [Ocherk mirmekologicheskoy fauny Kirgizskoy stepi]. Proceedings of the Russian Entomological Society [Trudy Russkago Entomologicheskago Obshchestva], 36, 294-316.
Ruzsky, M. D. (1905) The ants of Russia. (Formicariae Imperii Rossici). Systematics, geography and data on the biology of Russian ants. Part I. [Murav'i Rossii (Formicariae Imperii Rossici). Sistematika, geografija i dannye po biologii russkikh murav'ev. Chast' 1]. Trudy Obshchestva Estestvoispytatelei pri Imperatorskom Kazanskom Universitete, 38, 1-800.
Ruzsky, M. D. (1907) The ants of Russia. (Formicariae Imperii Rossici). Systematics, geography and data on the biology of Russian ants. Part II [Murav'i Rossii (Formicariae Imperii Rossici). Sistematika, geografija i dannye po biologii russkikh murav'ev. Chast' 2]. Trudy Obshchestva Estestvoispytatelei pri Imperatorskom Kazanskom Universitete, 40, 1-122.
 
 
The relational database directly used here for displaying data is a SQLite file format.
The database tables and their fields are described below as a table:
Table Field Type Description Key Foreing key
collections Data of collections in which the specimens are stored
`collection` TEXT collection identifier primary key, unique
`description` TEXT description of the collection (eg "Private collection of John Smith","Collection of the University of Somecity ")
owner TEXT owner of the collection (private person or organization)
curator TEXT curator of the collection
`contact` TEXT contact information for communication with the owner or curator of the collection
location Location data (formal place of collection, observations or literature references) - general description
`location` TEXT locality identifier primary key, unique
`description` TEXT description of the location (eg "top of Mount Big Mount", "3 km north of Nowhere town")
`hierarhy` TEXT place of the location in the geographical hierarchy (administrative or physical: from large allotments to small ones, separated by a comma with a space).
`source` TEXT the method or source by which the geographical coordinates of the location are determined (map, GPS or some others), and potential deviation of coordinates from actual (optional)
`author` TEXT the author who set the geographical coordinates of the location
placemark Geographical coordinates of parts of the location (or their boundaries)
`location` TEXT locality identifier foreign key location.location
`placemark` TEXT placemark identifier primary key, unique
`type` TEXT type of location (point, polyline or polygon: Piont, LineString, Polygon)
coordinates TEXT coordinates of the location (WGS-84: degrees and meters: longitude,latitude,height ... ... - like in Keyhole Markup Language standard).
series Data of series (all of specimens collected in one location by one collector at one time by one the same method (s))
`series` TEXT serie identifier primary key, unique
`location` TEXT locality identifier foreign key location.location
`cmode` TEXT description of method(s) of collecting the serie
`habitat` TEXT description of habitat where the serie was collected
`datetime_start` TEXT the start time of the collection of the serie (in the format YYYY:MM:DD hh:mm:ss, with possible reduction to known data up to a year)
`datetime_end` TEXT the end time of the collection of the serie (in the format YYYY:MM:DD hh:mm:ss, with possible reduction to known data up to a year)
collector TEXT name of the collector
specimen Collection specimen data (storage units in the collection)
`specimen` TEXT specimen identifier primary key, unique
`series` TEXT series identifier foreign key series.series
`taxon` TEXT taxon name the foreign key taxon.name
`parts` INTEGER The number of parts (individuals) of which the collection specimen consists
`collection` TEXT collection identifier foreign key collections.collection
specpart Data of the composition of specimen
`specimen` TEXT specimen identifier foreign key specimen.specimen
`part` TEXT name (designation) of part of the specimen (male, female, etc.)
`number` INTEGER number of parts of the specimen
determ Specimen determinations data
`determ` TEXT identifier of determination primary key, unique
`specimen` TEXT specimen identifier foreign key specimen.specimen
`taxon` TEXT the name of the taxon (original spelling in the label)
`datetime` TEXT date and time of determination (in the format YYYY:MM:DD hh:mm:ss, with possible reduction to known data up to a year)
`determinator` TEXT author of the determination
sections Database sections information*
`section` TEXT database section primary key, unique
`title` TEXT arbitrary title of the section description
`description` TEXT any description of the section
section Taxa included in sections of the database
`section` TEXT database section foreign key sections.section
`name` TEXT taxon name foreign key taxon.name
taxon Taxon data (as a formal unit of taxonomy)
`prank` TEXT rank of a parent taxon
`parent` TEXT the name of the parent taxon
`ssyn` TEXT the senior synonym of a taxon (if the taxon is junior synonym of some other taxon, in this case fields `prank` and `parent` must be empty)
`rank` TEXT rank of taxon
`status` TEXT the status of a taxon (valid, invalid, doubtful, synonym etc.)
`name` TEXT the name of the taxon primary key, unique
`abbr` TEXT abbreviated authorship of the taxon ("(L.)", "Linnaeus", "(Linnaeus, 1765)")
`orig` TEXT the original name of the taxon (according to the first description)
`auct` TEXT the author of the taxon (full spelling without year)
`year` TEXT year of the description of the taxon
`ref` TEXT bibliographic reference foreign key literature.ref
`page` TEXT page for the source with the first description of a taxon
tdata Data of the taxon (as a biological species)
`name` TEXT taxon name foreign key taxon.name
`general` TEXT general description of the taxon with any notes on taxonomy etc.
`mdescript` TEXT morphological description
`biology` TEXT a description of the features of biology
`ecology` TEXT description of ecological features
`distribution` TEXT description of the distribution of a taxon
`frequency` TEXT frequency of occurrence of a taxon
literature Data of literature sources
`ref` TEXT short bibliographic reference (eg, Smith J., 2001) primary key, unique
`text` TEXT complete bibliographic reference
`file` TEXT the link to the file with the full text of the work or some webpage etc. (if exists)
reference Data of literature references to the records of taxa
`reference` TEXT reference identifier primary key, unique
`ref` TEXT bibliographic reference foreign key literature.ref
`location` TEXT location identifier foreign key location.location
`name` TEXT taxon name foreign key taxon.name
`citedas` TEXT the original name of the taxon in the source
`text` TEXT original source text
`page` TEXT source page with indication
obs Data of observations of taxa
`obs` TEXT observation identifier primary key, unique
`location` TEXT location identifier foreign key location.location
`datetime` TEXT date and time of observation (in the format YYYY:MM:DD hh:mm:ss)
observer TEXT observer name
`name` TEXT taxon name foreign key taxon.name
`condition` TEXT description of the state of the object at the moment of observation
obsdet Data of the determinations of the observed objects
`obsdet` TEXT determination identifier primary key, unique
`obs` TEXT observation identifier foreign key obs.obs
`name` TEXT taxon name foreign key taxon.name
`deterninator` TEXT author of the determination
`datetime` TEXT date and time of determination (in the format YYYY:MM:DD hh:mm:ss)
* the division of the database into "sections" (data sets for different taxonomic groups), implemented earlier, seems doubtful. In the future, most likely, this possibility will be excluded. For each dataset it will be necessary to create a separate database.
 
In addition to the database directly used here, data can be obtained as a file in GeoJSON Format (https://geojson.org/). Each element of such a file is a set of basic data about record of a species and a spatial description of the location of the record.
For ease of use, geodata of records can be obtained in two different formats:
  1. Original data, including exact lines and polygons describing the locations of the records.
  2. Coordinates of the locations of records approximated to points.
Descriptions of properties of objects (records of species) are given below as a table (more detailed data can be found in the source database, which is described above):
field name field desctiption type
ID unique identifier of the record (cannot be empty) String
record_type record type (options: specimen (preserved specimen in collection), reference (in literature), observation) (cannot be empty) String
taxon_name scientific name of the taxon (cannot be empty) String
taxon_rank rank of the taxon (eg, species, subspecies etc.) (cannot be empty) String
taxon_status status of the taxon (cannot be empty) String
location_ID unique identifier of the location (cannot be empty) String
country name of the country (cannot be empty) String
region name of the region (province etc.) (optional) String
district name of the district (county etc.) (optional) String
collector name of the collector (the field is empty in case of reference or observation) String
collection identifier of collections in which the specimens are storedr (the field is empty in case of reference or observation) String
date date of the collector (the field is empty in case of reference) String
observer name of the observer (the field is empty in case of specimen or reference) String
source short bibliographic reference (eg, Smith J., 2001) (the field is empty in case of specimen or observation) String
source_name original name in literature (the field is empty in case of specimen or observation) String
err_degrees potential error of coordinates* in degrees Number
err_meters potential error of coordinates in meters Number
* Originally, in the database geometry of each location can be either a point, a line or a polygon, or a set of such figures. In the case of approximating the location coordinates to a point, its coordinates are accepted as the center of the square into which the location limits can be entered. A possible coordinate error is accepted, in this case, as half the side of such a square. If the location coordinates in the database are described by a single point, a possible coordinate error depends on the accuracy of their determination.
KGBase.ru © Konstantin Grebennikov 2017-2020 (kgrebennikov@gmail.com). License Creative Commons. Source code on GitHub.