Journal
JOURNAL OF HYMENOPTERA RESEARCH
Volume 61, Issue -, Pages 85-94Publisher
PENSOFT PUBL
DOI: 10.3897/jhr.61.20255
Keywords
Biological collections; database; Myrmica hellenica; distribution; Greece
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Funding
- 'AntLab' Marie Curie Career Integration Grant, part the 7th European Community Framework Programme
- 'Bolyai Janos' scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA)
- New National Excellence Program of the Ministry of Human Capacities of Hungary [NKP-16-4-IV]
- European Union
- European Social Fund
- [EFOP-3.6.1-16-2016-00022]
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Public awareness has been raised on the importance of natural history and academic collections for science and society in a time when reduced financial support and staff cuts are prevalent. In the field of biology, new species and new interspecies associations are constantly discovered by making use of museum collections, digitalised materials or citizen science programs. In our study, the Myrmica Latreille, 1804 image collection of AntWeb. org was screened for fungal ectoparasites. A total of 397 imaged specimens from 133 species were visually investigated. A single specimen of M. hellenica Finzi, 1926, collected in Greece by U. Sahlberg, showed a conspicuous fungal infection. The parasite was identified using microscopic methods as Rickia wasmannii Cavara, an ectoparasitic fungal species specialised to Myrmica ants. This finding represents a new country record and a new Myrmica species for the host spectrum of R. wasmannii. According to our results, online entomological databases can be screened relatively easily for ectoparasitic fungal infections from new hosts and new regions. However, depending on quality of the insect voucher photos, additional investigation of the material could be needed to confirm the identity of the parasite.
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