Unia Europejska

foto Piotr Ślipiński

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Wojciech Czechowski, Alexander Radchenko, Wiesława Czechowska, Kari Vepsäläinen 

The ants of Poland with reference to the myrmecofauna of Europe


Fauna Poloniae Vol. 4 New series

Museum and Institute of Zoology of the Polish Academy of Sciences
and Natura optima dux Foundation.

Warszawa 2012

173 x 243 mm, hardcover, 496 pages, 201 maps, 55 plates with several hundred SEM photographs of morphological details, 33 figures with drawings, 13 tables.

ISBN 978-83-930773-4-2

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This  book  on  ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) is an  updated, corrected and expanded version of the previous monograph of the Polish myrmecofauna (Czechowski et al. 2002). It contains 103  ant  species of 25 genera reported in Poland until  2010, the  occurrence of which in the  country are unquestionable or at  least  considered by  the authors probable. The  book  consists of  four  main chapters: (1)  a systematic checklist of the  ant  taxa  (subfamilies, genera, species) of Europe, (2)  a faunistic catalogue of the  ants of Poland, (3) characteristics of the  myrmecofauna of Poland, and  (4)  keys for identification. The checklist is the newest updated list of the European ants, and  it displays recent alterations in the ant  taxonomy. It contains nine subfamilies, 57 genera and  613  valid species; the list is complemented by 10 recognised but not  yet formally  described species. The faunistic catalogue provides a taxonomic survey  of the Polish ant species together with  information about their general distribution in the Palaearctic and  the distribution in Poland, with notes on the biology of each species. For some taxa (species, genera), notes on their taxonomic history are provided. The chapter compiles all faunistic data  published until  the  end  of the  year  2010; published reports are supplemented by confirmed unpublished data available to the  authors. For every species maps  of their ranges in the  Palaearctic and distributions in the  geographical regions in Poland are enclosed. The catalogue is closed  by a list of the species ever  reported in Poland and  later  owing  to a specified reason excluded from  the Polish fauna. The  next  chapter includes zoogeographical and  ecological characteristics of the  Polish myrmecofauna, with  reference to the European myrmecofauna as a whole. The last  chapter includes keys for identification of the  ant taxa (subfamilies, genera and  species), individually for  workers, queens and  males (when distinguishable). The keys for subfamilies and genera involve  all European taxa  of these ranks. The keys for species include all ant  species known in Poland, and  those not  reported from   Poland but  present in adjacent regions of Central Europe, and recognised as possible to be found in the country. The keys are illustrated with  SEM  photographs. The  main chapters are  preceded by the   foreword presenting general trends in myrmecological research in the world  throughout history, and  the introduction, in which the past  and   the present of Polish myrmecology is outlined.

Key words:
 Ants, biology, checklist, ecology, Europe, faunistics, key, morphology, Poland, systematics, taxonomy, zoogeography.