title: The Westpalaearctic Lasius paralienus complex (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) contains three species.
abstract: Application of Numeric Morphology-Based Alpha-Taxonomy (NUMOBAT) demonstrated the existence of three cryptic species within the Westpalaearctic Lasius paralienus species complex: L. paralienus Seifert, 1992, having a wider European distribution north to Sweden, L. casevitzi sp. nov., an endemic of Corsica, and Lasius bombycina sp. nov. from southeast Central Europe, the Balkans and Asia Minor. Hierarchical NC-Ward clustering and non-hierarchical NC-k-means clustering of 16 morphological characters resulted in 98.7% identical classifications within 76 examined nest samples of the three species. The classification error in 180 worker individuals was 0% in a linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and 1.3% in a LOOCV-LDA. Differential characters to other species groups and an identification key of the six European members of the Lasius alienus Förster species group are provided.
authors.affiliation: Senckenberg Museum für Naturkunde Görlitz, Am Museum 1, 02826 Görlitz, Germany.; Email: bernhard.seifert@senckenberg.de.
authors.forename: Bernhard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Seifert
authors.affiliation: 104 route de Mounic, 33160 Saint Aubin de Médoc, France.; Email: chris.gal@wanadoo.fr.
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Galkowski
mesh_terms: D063147:Animal Distribution; D000818:Animals; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D006927:Hymenoptera / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000145:classification* / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D013045:Species Specificity