Going it Alone

Myrmica crassirugis is an interesting medium sized ant that is not too uncommon in the grasslands (Becher's Prairie) just west of Williams Lake. It was a fairly common capture in some work I did a few years ago and, following some additional collecting, seems to reside in Canada only in a few locations in British Columbia. The specimens I collected became one of just a few samples used to officially describe this species by Andre Francoeur at the University of Quebec a couple of years ago.

About the time that I was collecting this ant, I met a PhD student, Gunther Jansen, at a conference in Washington DC, who was working at the University of Helsinki. Gunther was working on the evolutionary history of the genus to which this ant belongs. Just this week, he has published his work, examining over 60 species, including some of my samples from Becher's Prairie. Of interest is the finding that Myrmica crassirugis is a bit of an oddball.

Whereas most other species within the genus cluster into what are known as species groups (aggregations of closely related species), Myrmica crassirugis is one of the few that seems to stand out on its own. In fact, from its DNA it can be estimated that this species evolved around 18 million years ago. For some reason this species has been an evolutionary loner and one is left to wonder why. It almost certainly evolved first in Asia although it isn't known there now so a tendency not to travel into new habitat isn't the answer.

The answer probably lies in the ecology of this species. The problem is, like most ants in temperate climates, we know almost nothing about this.

Photo credit: Me