Summary details for Syedra myrmicarum (Kulczyński, 1882)

Distribution

Syedra myrmicarum has been collected from three scattered locations in southern England, all within the space of four years. The first was on sand dunes at Winterton in Norfolk in 2014 (Collyer, 2014), then in a churchyard at Tempsford, Bedfordshire and finally at Shapley Heath in Hampshire in 2017. At the last site it was found in a nest of the ant Lasius brunneus. In continental Europe it is known from France, Italy, Germany and some central European countries but is absent from the Iberian Peninsula and Greece. There, as the specific name suggests, it is frequently associated with ant’s nests.

Habitat and ecology

This species has been recorded from three apparently different types of habitat in Britain, sand dunes, a Thuja bush in a churchyard and in a Lasius brunneus nest in a copse on old heathland. If, as the continental records for this species suggest, it is a myrmecophile species this might explain its rather strange habitat range. A targeted survey of ants nests would be needed to establish whether this was the case.

Status

Given the likely cryptic micro-habitat of this species, it has probably remained largely undetected. Until further surveys have been conducted it would premature to assign a formal status to the species.