Inventaire des fourmis de l’île d’Yeu (France) (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

Abstract

Inventory of ants of the Yeu Island (France) (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Yeu is a small island located in the Bay of Biscay that encompasses a wide diversity of highly preserved coastal habitats. We provide here a first formal inventory of the ant community found on the island, where we identified 29 species forming an assemblage of temperate and Mediterranean ants at the northern range of their distribution. The presence of species such as Messor capitatus, Aphaenogaster gibbosa and Monomorium carbonarium is discussed, as well as the occurrence of species seldom observed across the western part of France such as Strongylognathus testaceus and Lasius mixtus. Considering the overall remarkable diversity found on the island given its minute size, we further provide a detailed list of the species found at the surveyed sites, as well as brief additional notes on their ecology.