General description: As Tetramorium sp. here is considered species was previously reported for the Lower Volga region as Tetramorium semilaeve Andre, 1881 (Grebennikov et al., 2002), in the modern interpretation distributed in the Western Mediterranean (Borowiec et al. 2015). A repeated study of a specimen (female) from the Volgograd region (Lake E’lton) showed that it is T. chefketi Forel, 1911 with somewhat smoothed microsculpture. Unfortunately, attempts to obtain specimens of “T. semilaeve” from Kalmykia collected by Zh.V. Savranskaya (and mentioned in the 2002 article) were unsuccessful. Thus, at present it is impossible to decide exactly to what species they belong in fact. In addition, as “Tetramorium sp.” here are listed specimens of workers, which have not been identified reliably due to the absence of a corresponding relevant revision or key for the entire Tetramorium genus, which includes the territory of the Lower Volga Region.

Borowiec, L.; Galkowski, C.; Salata, S. 2015. What is Tetramorium semilaeve André, 1883? (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). ZooKeys 512:39-62.