Phylogeographic structure of Italian Formica pratensis (Retzius 1783) populations in the framework of the species Eurasian range

The phylogeography and demographical history of Italian Formica pratensis populations were examined and compared with the Eurasian-wide dataset available for this species and the other red wood ant species Formica lugubris. Forty-eight workers belonging to eight populations from both Alps and Apennines were analysed sequencing a 1.5-kilobase mitochondrial DNA fragment, including the cytochrome b gene and part of the NADH dehydrogenase subunit 6 gene. A total of 127 sequences were screened, scoring 53 different haplotypes amongst all specimens, with five new haplotypes discovered in the Italian populations. All the Italian haplotypes clustered in a monophyletic clade, underlining a clear phylogeographical separation of this group from the other Eurasian groups and suggesting a glacial separate forest refugia and different post-glacial colonisation patterns. The haplotypes from the Alps and the Apennines showed a high genetic proximity, pointing out an ancient (Pleistocene) wide distribution of this species across all these areas and common ancestral lineages. No shared haplotypes were scored between Northern and Central Apennine populations, but the low inter-population genetic distance indicated similar post-glacial selective processes acting on these groups. The diversity we recorded may be influenced by the actual fragmentation of F. pratensis populations across its entire Eurasian range, and by the limited geographical origin and sample dimension of the dataset analysed. Future studies with a more extensive sampling in the Alps and Eastern Europe are needed to confirm our result.