Survey of the ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of the Greek Thrace

The ant fauna of Greece has been an object of investigations for almost two centuries, but most of the contributions were restricted to particular parts or regions of the country. The first comprehensive checklist, comprising the past studies on Greek ants, was done only recently by Legakis (2011). In the last few years, the ant fauna of Greece was more intensively studied as part of the inventory of the ants of the Mediterranean region (Borowiec and Salata 2012, Borowiec and Salata 2013, Borowiec and Salata 2014b, Borowiec and Salata 2014a, Salata and Borowiec 2015a, Salata and Borowiec 2015b, Salata and Borowiec 2015c). Based on the above mentioned studies, it turned out that the Greek ant fauna is probably the richest in Europe, with about 280 recorded species including almost 20 endemic to this country. Among the geographic regions of Greece, Macedonia has richest ant fauna with at least 158 species recorded, followed by Dodecanese (111), Ionian Islands (107), East Aegean Islands (106), Peloponnese (102), Crete (98), Sterea Ellas (72), Thessaly (67), Cyclades (46), and Epirus (42) respectively (Borowiec & Salata unpublished data). The ants of Greek Thrace have been more or less neglected so far. This region has not been studied in recent years, while older data are very scarce. As a result, only 12 species were mentioned from this region (Legakis 2011). Greek Thrace (or Western Thrace) is one of the geographic and historical regions of Greece. It is the eastern-most mainland part of the country, bordered by Greek Macedonia to the west, Bulgaria to the north (the southern part of Bulgaria is also known as the Bulgarian or Northern Thrace), Turkish (or Eastern) Thrace to the east and the Aegean Sea to the south. Most of the northern part of Greek Thrace is occupied by the Rhodope Mountains. Larger plains are situated especially in the south-western, central and north-eastern part of the region. A Mediterranean climate prevails in the southern part of Thrace and is modified by continental influences in the Rhodope Mountains (Encyclopaedia Britannica 2015). To improve the knowledge on Thracian ants, we conducted two field trips, in spring 2014 and in summer 2015, and included some previously collected unpublished material. Altogether, we compiled the samples from more than 70 localities throughout the region. As a result we present a check-list of all ant species recorded so far in Greek Thrace with comments on the taxonomy and distribution of poorly known or unnamed species.