''Leptothorax'' is a genus of small
ant
Ants are Eusociality, eusocial insects of the Family (biology), family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the Taxonomy (biology), order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from Vespoidea, vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cre ...
s with mainly
Holarctic
The Holarctic realm is a biogeographic realm that comprises the majority of habitats found throughout the continents in the Northern Hemisphere. It corresponds to the floristic Boreal Kingdom. It includes both the Nearctic zoogeographical reg ...
distributions. The genus is notable for its widespread social parasitism, i.e. they are dependent on the help of workers from other ant species during a part or the whole of their life cycles.
Closely related genera are ''
Cardiocondyla
''Cardiocondyla'' is an Old World genus of ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae.
Distribution
Approximately 70 species are currently recognized as belonging to this genus, most of which are distributed in the Old World tropics and subtropics, but a ...
'', ''
Stereomyrmex'' and ''
Romblonella''.
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]
Species
*'' Leptothorax acervorum'' (Fabricius, 1793)
*'' Leptothorax athabasca'' Buschinger & Schulz, 2008
*'' Leptothorax buschingeri'' Kutter, 1967
*'' Leptothorax calderoni'' Creighton, 1950
*'' Leptothorax crassipilis'' Wheeler, 1917
*'' Leptothorax faberi'' Buschinger, 1983
*'' Leptothorax goesswaldi'' Kutter, 1967
*'' Leptothorax gredleri'' Mayr, 1855
*'' Leptothorax kutteri'' Buschinger, 1966
*'' Leptothorax muscorum'' (Nylander, 1846)
*'' Leptothorax oceanicus'' (Kuznetsov-Ugamsky, 1928)
*'' Leptothorax pacis'' (Kutter, 1945)
*'' Leptothorax paraxenus'' Heinze & Alloway, 1992
*'' Leptothorax pocahontas'' (Buschinger, 1979)
*'' Leptothorax retractus'' Francoeur, 1986
*'' Leptothorax scamni'' Ruzsky, 1905
*'' Leptothorax sphagnicola'' Francoeur, 1986
*'' Leptothorax wilsoni'' Heinze, 1989
*'' Leptothorax zhengi'' Zhou & Chen, 2011
References
Ant genera
Taxa named by Gustav Mayr
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot
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