Myrmecophilus ochraceus Fischer, 1853

Stalling, Thomas, 2024, Myrmecophilus jordanicus, a new species of ant cricket from Jordan and Israel, with notes on the synonymy of Myrmecophilus nigricornis (Orthoptera: Myrmecophilidae), Israel Journal of Entomology (Oxford, England) 53 (17), pp. 25-32 : 30

Myrmecophilus ochraceus Fischer, 1853

( Fig. 5)

Myrmecophilus ochraceus Fischer, 1853: 21–22 .

Myrmecophilus nigricornis Chopard, 1963: 174–175 , n. syn.

Material examined: Israel: Judean Hills: ♀ aDult, Abu Gosh near Jerusalem, 7.v.1948, A. Moscona ( MNHN); Central Negev : ♀ aDult, WaDi AbyaD, 27.iii.1952, J. Wahrman ( MNHN); ♀ aDult, Asluj, 26.xii.1956, O. Yarkoni (SMNHTAU) .

Taxonomic status of Myrmecophilus nigricornis

Myrmecophilus nigricornis was described by Chopard in 1963 based on material from the Jerusalem area in Israel.According to the original description, the holotype had been deposited in the “Hebrew University Collection”, which was transferred to the National Collection of Insects of Tel Aviv University in 1992 and should have been kept in the SMNHTAU, but could not been located (L. Friedman, pers. comm.). Subsequently, I examined the Orthoptera collection of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris that houses a lot of Chopard material, but failed to locate the labelled M. nigricornis holotype there as well. However, a female specimen designated by Chopard as a paratype of this species with the exact collecting data of the holotype was found, labelled as: “ PARATYPE / MNHN-EO-ENSIF4499 / A. Moscona 7.v.1948 / Israel Abu Gosh near Jerusalem / Myrmecophilus nigricornis Chp. PARATYPE ” ( Fig. 5). Since the data of the holotype corresponded to this specimen instead of the paratype data given by Chopard (1963), I presume that it is the actual holotype, which was mistakenly labelled as a paratype instead of the holotype.

We also found two (out of five) assumed paratypes of M. nigricornis in the examined holdings of the SMNHTAU and MNHN, both not labelled as paratypes: one adult female from Asluj [=Mash'abe Sade, 31°00'N 34°46'E] and another adult female from Wadi Abyad [=Nahal Lavan, 30°54'N 34°31'E], which probably belongs to M. jordanicus n. sp.

Chopard (1963) did not provide any differential diagnosis for M. ochraceus in the original description of M. nigricornis . The presumed holotype, an adult female, clearly shows all the characteristics of the subgenus Myrmophilina . It has a beige coloured body, long setae on the frons and body, an elongated ovipositor with straight outer edges at the tip, which distinguishes it from both M. jordanicus n. sp. and M. americanus . The whereabouts of the holotype of M. ochraceus is unknown ( Cigliano et al. 2024); therefore, it cannot be used for verification purpose. Instead, various specimens of M. ochraceus from the author’s collection from the area of the type locality in Sicily have been used for comparison. No characters distinguishing M. nigricornis and M. ochraceus could be found; consequently, M. nigricornis Chopard, 1963 is here considered a junior subjective synonym of M. ochraceus Fischer, 1853 .