%0 Journal Article
%T Ant-Associated Beetle Fauna in Bulgaria: A Review and New Data
%A Albena Lapeva-Gjonova
%J Psyche
%D 2013
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2013/242037
%X The rich myrmecofauna in Bulgaria, comprising about 170 species, constitutes favorable settings for a diverse associated fauna. An attempt to summarize the fragmented faunal data on this ecological group in Bulgaria, together with inclusion of new data, has resulted in a comprehensive list of 121 beetle species from 14 families, obligate or facultative ant related. The extent of current knowledge on the various beetle families, host specificity, the nature of relations between guests and their ant hosts, and the regional characteristics of the myrmecophilous fauna are discussed. 1. Introduction The social organization of ants and the conditions found within their nests are favorable to a number of organisms that coexist with them. These guests are mainly arthropods, and they form a variety of relationships with their hosts. Some guests enter the nests, where they feed as predators, scavengers, temporary commensals, or as ecto- and endoparasites. Others, commonly known as myrmecophiles, are dependent on ant communities for the whole or part of their life cycle [1]. Beetles are one of the ant-associated fauna groups that are the richest in number of species [2, 3]. Studies on these specific multispecies interactions are of particular faunistic, ecological, and evolutionary interest. The number of documented ant-associated species has been steadily increasing since the beginning of intensive research on the myrmecophilous fauna in the 19th century. Even in 1841 and 1844 M£¿rkel [4, 5] published detailed lists of about 280 beetle species associated to ant nests in Europe. The first significant review was made by Wasmann [6], who reported a total of 1,177 myrmecophilous species in the world. Soon after this, the number grew to a total of 1,500, of which 1,000 species are beetles [1]. Nearly a century later, Wilson [7], and after that H£¿lldobler and Wilson [2], listed 35 beetle families all over the world documented to have links with ants. According to the latest taxonomic changes in Coleoptera, there are actually only 28 such families [8], but the families with myrmecophilous members expand their range. Here, we should add the first recently established myrmecophilous member of Buprestidae family [9]. Currently, it is estimated that the number of the ant-associated insects is not less than 10,000 species [10]. The diversity of ant-related fauna is closely connected with nest size [2, 11]. As a rule, larger colonies exist for longer and offer a wider variety of ecological niches that are useful to more guests. For these reasons, in the Palaearctic, the
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/psyche/2013/242037/