The ant cricket Myrmecophilus orientalis on the Dodecanese Islands, Greece (Orthoptera: Myrmecophilidae)

This study reports the occurrence of the ant cricket Myrmecophilus orientalis Stalling, 2010 on the Dodecanese Islands Kos and Tilos, Greece. This is the first evidence of M. orientalis from Greece and Europe. The species lives in ant nests under stones and in dead wood in open scrubland and pine forests. The adults were found in the nests of large Camponotus species, while the juveniles were found in the nests of small ant species of the genera Crematogaster and Lepisiota. We assumed that the species changes the host ant species during its life cycle.

ochraceus Fischer, 1853. Myrmecophilus orientalis Stalling, 2010 has so far been known only from Jordan and Eastern Turkey (Stalling 2010). The first records of M. orientalis from Greece and Europe are described here.
Ant nests were checked for the presence of Myrmecophilus on the island of Kos, Greece, in May 2018. The ant nests were found by turning stones and dead wood trunks. All specimens were captured and preserved in 70% ethanol. Subsequently, they were pinned and dried. In addition, specimens from the collections of the Museo Civico Di Storia Naturale Di Genova and Naturhistorisches Museum Wien were examined. Specimen identification was performed in accordance with the criteria of Stalling (2010) and by direct comparison with specimens of the type series of M. orientalis which is deposited in the collection of the Muséum d'Histoire naturelle de Genève (holotype) and the collection of the first author (paratypes). The ants were identified in accordance with the criteria of Agosti and Collingwood (1987), Karaman and Aktaç (2013) and Salata and Borowiec (2015).
Material examined ( The records of Myrmecophilus orientalis from Kos and Tilos are the first for Europe. The recent findings from Greece and a specimen of M. orientalis deposited in the collection of the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien (Austria) from the western part of Turkey (Dalyan, Muğla Province) show that the distribution area of M. orientalis extends much further to the west than hitherto known. Another specimen deposited in the collection of the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien (Austria) from Rhodes, Dodecanese Islands, Greece probably belongs to M. orientalis. The species can therefore be expected to occur all over the Dodecanese and the southern part of Turkey. In the past, the species might have been overlooked because of its cryptic lifestyle and difficulties in identification.
The adults of M. orientalis live with large Camponotus species. On Kos island, they were found in nests of Camponotus baldaccii Emery, 1908 (1 individual) and Camponotus samius Forel, 1889 (10 individuals). The juveniles were found with the much smaller ant species Crematogaster erectepilosa Salata and Boroviec, 2015 (7 individuals) and Lepisiota frauenfeldi (Mayr, 1855) (1 individual). Therefore, we can assume that M. orientalis changes the host ant species between larval and adult instar stages. This phenomenon has already been observed in other ant cricket species (Schimmer 1909, Akino 2008), but it is not known whether the adults lay the eggs in the nests of the small ant species, or whether the juvenile specimens migrate from the nests of the large to the small ants. Moving to new ant nests is very dangerous, but according to Akino (2008) ant crickets are able to adapt their hydrocarbon cuticular composition and profiles to those of the new host ant species and colonies within approximately one week, and are then no longer considered as intruders.
the grants supporting the Orthoptera Species File (financed by the Orthopterists' Society in cooperation and the Illinois Natural History Survey) and D. Chobanov acknowledges the Synthesys grant AT-TAF-546 for his work in the Natural History Museum of Vienna in 2010.