Plesiobiotic Associations Between Ants: A Common Yet Underreported Phenomenon in the Mediterranean Region?

Among ants, plesiobiotic associations are defined as occasional or regular nesting of heterospecific colonies in close proximity and without any biological interdependence. Habitats with a scarcity available microhabitats ecological dissimilarity between the involved species supposed to favor frequency plesiobiosis. In last review published on this topic, authors summarized all pairs reported literature for Holarctic region, listing 48 pairs. On basis our field investigation Mediterranean island Sicily (Italy), we able report additional 81 ant-ant pairs, two three ant species, four ant-termite pair associations. We suggest plesiobiosis be severely underreported rather than rare, at least region.