Cataglyphis

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Protostomia
Cladus: Ecdysozoa
Cladus: Panarthropoda
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Classis: Insecta
Cladus: Dicondylia
Subclassis: Pterygota
Cladus: Metapterygota
Infraclassis: Neoptera
Cladus: Eumetabola
Cladus: Endopterygota
Superordo: Hymenopterida
Ordo: Hymenoptera
Subordo: Apocrita
Superfamilia: Formicoidea

Familia: Formicidae
Subfamilia: Formicinae
Tribus: Formicini
Genus: Cataglyphis
Species: C. adenensis – C. bazoftensis – C. bicolor – C. bombycinus – C. dejdaranensis – C. diehlii – C. fici – C. fisheri – C. fritillariae – C. holgerseni – C. isis – C. israelensis – C. italica – C. niger – C. nigripes – C. nodus – C. savignyi – C. setipes
Name

Cataglyphis Förster, 1850
References

Template:Förster, 1850

Ionescu, A.; Eyer, P.-A. 2016: Notes on Cataglyphis Foerster, 1850 of the bicolor species-group in Israel, with description of a new species (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Israel Journal of Entomology, 46, 109–131. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.221456
Khalili-Moghadam, A., Salata, S. & Borowiec, L. 2021. Three new species of Cataglyphis Foerster, 1850 (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) from Iran. ZooKeys, 1009: 1–28. DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.1009.59205 Open access Reference page.
Radchenko, A.; Paknia, O. 2010: Two new species of the genus Cataglyphis Foerster, 1850 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from Iran. Annales zoologici, 60: 69–76. ISSN: 0003-4541 DOI: 10.3161/000345410X499533
Salata, S., Kiyani, H., Minaei, K. & Borowiec, L. 2021. Taxonomic review of the Cataglyphis livida complex (Hymenoptera, Formicidae), with a description of a new species from Iran. ZooKeys, 1010: 117–131. DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.1010.58348 Open access Reference page.
Sharaf, M.R., Collingwood, C. & Aldawood, A. 2015. Notes on the ant genus Cataglyphis Foerster, 1850 (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in the Arabian Peninsula with description of a new species and a key to species of the C. pallida-group. ZooKeys 545: 101–117. DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.545.6308 Reference page.
Wachkoo, A.A. & Bharti, H. 2015. Taxonomy and distribution of the ant Cataglyphis setipes (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Biodiversity Data Journal 3: e4447. DOI: 10.3897/BDJ.3.e4447. Reference page.

Cataglyphis [2] is a genus of ant, desert ants, in the subfamily Formicinae. Its most famous species is C. bicolor, the Sahara Desert ant, which runs on hot sand to find insects that died of heat exhaustion, and can, like other several other Cataglyphis species, sustain body temperatures up to 50°C.[3] Cataglyphis is also the name of an autonomous rover[4] that won the NASA Sample Return Robot Centennial Challenge[5] inspired by the navigation approaches used by desert ants.

Description

Species of this genus are behaviourally, morphologically, and physiologically adapted to dry and hot habitats.[6]
Navigational behaviour

In the Sahara, ants live where no bushes or clumps of grass are available to protect them, and where tracks are covered by wind-blown sand in seconds. The midday sun is so hot that even the permanent residents, sand lizards, insects, and a few birds, have to take shelter, but this is when, for not much more than an hour, Cataglyphis spp. are to come out of their underground nests and forage. They can withstand higher temperatures than any other insects. They pour out on to the sand and search for insects that have died of heat stress. Each ant dashes about in zigzag patterns, but as soon as one is lucky enough to find a tiny insect corpse, it has to get it back to the nest fast before the ant dies of the heat. It does not retrace the zig-zagging path of its outward journey; even if a scent trail made this possible, such a route would be time-wasting. Instead, it runs in a straight line directly back to its nest hole.[7]

On its outward journey, it zig-zags right and left. Every time it changes direction, it lifts its head and wheels around to take a bearing on the sun. In addition, it has to remember how far it went on each straight run. When time to head for home, it has to sum all these data and come out with the precise direction needed. Some outward journeys take an ant a quarter of an hour, with sun sightings every few seconds.[7]

In an experiment, individual ants were fitted with an apparatus that blocked direct sight of the sun, while giving a false impression of where the sun was, using a mirror. When these ants headed for home, they dashed off to a point in the desert displaced by just the amount that the mirror had shifted the sun's position.[7]
Distribution

At least five different species of Cataglyphis occur in the Sahara Desert, which may be considered the center of distribution for this genus.[8] Five species also occur in Israel.[9] Some species reach into southern Russia, southern Spain,[10] Greece,[11] the former Yugoslavia, Hungary, the European part of Turkey, and the Aral-Caspian area near Tijanchan.[6]

Parthenogenesis

Queen ants of the species C. cursor can produce female reproductive progeny (i.e. potential new queens or gynes) by parthenogenesis.[12][13] Parthenogenesis, in this case, involves, a process (automictic thelytoky) by which two haploid products of meiosis fuse to form a diploid zygote that develops into a gyne. Queens can also produce female worker ants by sexual reproduction involving fertilisation of eggs.

Species

Cataglyphis abyssinica (Forel, 1904)
Cataglyphis acutinodis Collingwood & Agosti, 1996
Cataglyphis adenensis (Forel, 1904)
Cataglyphis aenescens (Nylander, 1849)
Cataglyphis agostii Sharaf, 2007
Cataglyphis albicans (Roger, 1859)
Cataglyphis alibabae Pisarski, 1965
Cataglyphis altisquamis (André, 1881)
Cataglyphis arenaria Finzi, 1940
Cataglyphis argentata (Radoszkowsky, 1876)
Cataglyphis asiriensis Collingwood, 1985
Cataglyphis aurata Menozzi, 1932
Cataglyphis bellicosa (Karavaiev, 1924)
Cataglyphis bergiana Arnol'di, 1964
Cataglyphis bicolor (Fabricius, 1793) — Sahara Desert ant
Cataglyphis bicoloripes Walker, 1871
Cataglyphis bombycina (Roger, 1859) — Saharan silver ant
Cataglyphis bucharica Emery, 1925
Cataglyphis cana Santschi, 1925
Cataglyphis cinnamomea (Karavaiev, 1910)
Cataglyphis cugiai Menozzi, 1939
Cataglyphis cuneinodis Arnol'di, 1964
Cataglyphis cursor (Fonscolombe, 1846)
Cataglyphis diehlii (Forel, 1902)
Cataglyphis douwesi De Haro & Collingwood, 2000
Cataglyphis elegantissima Arnol'di, 1968
Cataglyphis emeryi (Karavaiev, 1911)
Cataglyphis emmae (Forel, 1909)
Cataglyphis espadaleri Cagniant, 2009
Cataglyphis flavitibia Chang & He, 2002
Cataglyphis flavobrunnea Collingwood & Agosti, 1996
Cataglyphis floricola Tinaut, 1993
Cataglyphis foreli (Ruzsky, 1903)
Cataglyphis fortis (Forel, 1902) — Sahara desert
Cataglyphis fossilis Cagniant, 2009
Cataglyphis frigida (André, 1881)
Cataglyphis gadeai De Haro & Collingwood, 2003
Cataglyphis gaetula Santschi, 1929
Cataglyphis glabilabia Chang & He, 2002
Cataglyphis gracilens Santschi, 1929
Cataglyphis hannae Agosti, 1994 — Tunisia
Cataglyphis harteni Collingwood & Agosti, 1996
Cataglyphis helanensis Chang & He, 2002
Cataglyphis holgerseni Collingwood & Agosti, 1996
Cataglyphis humeya Tinaut, 1991
Cataglyphis iberica (Emery, 1906)
Cataglyphis indica Pisarski, 1962
Cataglyphis isis (Forel, 1913)
Cataglyphis israelensis Ionescu & Eyer, 2016
Cataglyphis italica (Emery, 1906)
Cataglyphis karakalensis Arnol'di, 1964
Cataglyphis kurdistanica Pisarski, 1965
Cataglyphis laevior Santschi, 1929
Cataglyphis laylae Collingwood, 2011
Cataglyphis livida (André, 1881)
Cataglyphis longipedem (Eichwald, 1841)
Cataglyphis lunatica Baroni Urbani, 1969
Cataglyphis machmal Radchenko & Arakelian, 1991
Cataglyphis marroui Cagniant, 2009
Cataglyphis mauritanica (Emery, 1906)
Cataglyphis minima Collingwood, 1985
Cataglyphis nigra (André, 1881)
Cataglyphis nigripes Arnol'di, 1964
Cataglyphis nodus (Brullé, 1833) — Dalmatia
Cataglyphis oasium Menozzi, 1932
Cataglyphis opacior Collingwood & Agosti, 1996
Cataglyphis otini Santschi, 1929
Cataglyphis oxiana Arnol'di, 1964
Cataglyphis pallida Mayr, 1877
Cataglyphis piligera Arnol'di, 1964
Cataglyphis piliscapa (Forel, 1901)
Cataglyphis pilisquamis Santschi, 1929
Cataglyphis pubescens Radchenko & Paknia, 2010
Cataglyphis rosenhaueri Santschi, 1925
Cataglyphis rubra (Forel, 1903)
Cataglyphis sabulosa Kugler, 1981
Cataglyphis saharae Santschi, 1929
Cataglyphis savignyi (Dufour, 1862) — Sahara desert
Cataglyphis semitonsa Santschi, 1929
Cataglyphis setipes (Forel, 1894)
Cataglyphis shuaibensis Collingwood & Agosti, 1996
Cataglyphis stigmata Radchenko & Paknia, 2010
Cataglyphis tartessica Amor & Ortega, 2014
Cataglyphis takyrica Dlussky, Soyunov & Zabelin, 1990
Cataglyphis theryi Santschi, 1921
Cataglyphis urens Collingwood, 1985
Cataglyphis vaucheri (Emery, 1906)
Cataglyphis velox Santschi, 1929
Cataglyphis viatica (Fabricius, 1787)
Cataglyphis viaticoides (André, 1881)
Cataglyphis zakharovi Radchenko, 1997

References

Bolton, B. (2014). "Cataglyphis". AntCat. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
Steck, K.; Hansson, B. S.; Knaden, M. (2009). "Smells like home: Desert ants, Cataglyphis fortis, use olfactory landmarks to pinpoint the nest". Frontiers in Zoology. 6: 5. doi:10.1186/1742-9994-6-5. PMC 2651142. PMID 19250516.
Shi, N. N.; Tsai, C.-C.; Camino, F.; Bernard, G. D.; Yu, N.; Wehner, R. (2015). "Keeping cool: Enhanced optical reflection and radiative heat dissipation in Saharan silver ants". Science. 349 (6245): 298–301. Bibcode:2015Sci...349..298S. doi:10.1126/science.aab3564. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 26089358. S2CID 206638368.
"NASA_Challenge". www2.statler.wvu.edu. Archived from the original on 2016-07-02. Retrieved 2016-09-29.
Hall, Loura (2016-09-08). "NASA Awards $750K in Sample Return Robot Challenge". Retrieved 2016-09-29.
Petrov, I.Z. (1986). "Distribution of species of the genus Cataglyphis Foerster, 1850 (Formicidae, Hymenoptera) in Yugoslavia" (PDF). Arhiv Bioloskih Nauka. 38: 11–12.
Attenborough, David (1990). The Trials Of Life. Little, Brown and Company. pp. 120–121. ISBN 0-316-05751-7.
Bernard, F. (1968): Les fourmis (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) d'Europe occidentale et septentrionale.
Ionescu, A.; Eyer, P.-A. (2016). "Notes on Cataglyphis Foerster, 1850 of the bicolor species-group in Israel, with description of a new species (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)". Israel Journal of Entomology. 46: 109–131. doi:10.5281/zenodo.221456.
Mangan, Michael; Webb, Barbara (2012). "Spontaneous formation of multiple routes in individual desert ants (Cataglyphis velox)". Behavioral Ecology. 23 (5): 944–954. doi:10.1093/beheco/ars051.
Borowiec, L.; Salata, S. (2013). "Ants of Greece – additions and corrections (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)" (PDF). Genus:. Wroclaw. 24 (3–4): 335–401.
Pearcy M, Aron S, Doums C, Keller L (2004). "Conditional use of sex and parthenogenesis for worker and queen production in ants" (PDF). Science. 306 (5702): 1780–3. Bibcode:2004Sci...306.1780P. doi:10.1126/science.1105453. PMID 15576621. S2CID 37558595.

Aron S, Timmermans I, Pearcy M (2011). "Ant queens adjust egg fertilization to benefit from both sexual and asexual reproduction". Biology Letters. 7 (4): 571–3. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2010.1189. PMC 3130223. PMID 21307046.