Supplementary material 1 from: Lapeva-Gjonova A, Pramatarova M, Borowiec L, Gjonov I, Kostova R, Bekchiev R, Borissov S (2025) DNA barcoding of Messor ants of Bulgaria with insights into their taxonomic diversity. Biodiversity Data Journal 13: e168586. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.13.e168586

Supplementary materials. COI genetic distance (%) within studied Messor species species n min max Messor atanassovii 5 0 1.41 Messor sp. 1 (near M. wasmanni) 4 0 0.61 Messor wasmanni 13 0 0.81 Messor oertzeni 3 0 0.15 Messor structor 17 0 5.07 Messor mcarthuri 2 0 0.00 Messor hellenius 24 0 0.99 Messor ponticus 4 0 1.38 Messor ibericus 7 0 0.46 COI genetic distance (%) between Messor species under the Kimura 2-parameter model. Values in brackets represent the mean within species distance. NA/n.a.: not available. N species 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1. M. creticus NA (n.a) 2. M. atanassovii 1.92 NA (0.74) 3. Messor sp. 1 (near M. wasmanni) 5.98 6.28 NA (0.31) 4. M. wasmanni 5.80 9.58 5.00 NA (0.18) 5. M. oertzeni 9.05 9.40 10.71 10.24 NA (0.10) 6. M. structor 8.99 9.18 10.20 10.18 9.22 NA (2.57) 7. M. mcarthuri 9.73 9.98 10.14 11.55 8.89 8.49 NA (0) 8. M. hellenius 9.50 9.66 10.12 10.88 9.13 8.48 6.47 NA (0.35) 9. M. ponticus 9.56 9.64 10.67 11.28 9.40 8.57 7.01 1.63 NA (0.83) 10. M. ibericus 9.26 9.48 10.29 10.72 8.93 8.40 6.73 3.20 3.30 NA (0.20) 11. Messor cf. structor 7.00 7.61 8.83 9.50 7.94 7.79 7.37 6.19 6.39 6.50 NA (n.a) 12. Messor sp. 2 (near M. oertzeni) 10.61 10.64 11.62 11.73 5.72 9.81 9.11 8.88 8.84 9.21 7.38 NA (n.a) #Result of GMYC species delimitation method: single; likelihood of null model: 636.1001; maximum; likelihood of GMYC model: 641.692; likelihood ratio: 11.1838 result of LR test: 0.003727933**; number of ML clusters: 13; confidence interval: 3-23; number of ML entities: 21; confidence interval: 3-42; threshold time: -0.002905204 M. creticus M. atanassovii Messor sp. 1 M. wasmanni Мessor cf. structor Messor sp. 2 M. oertzeni M. structor M. mcarthuri M. hellenius M. ponticus M. ibericus Messor sp.|BGANT033-23 Messor helleniusBGANT016-23 Messor helleniusBGANT029-23 Messor helleniusBGANT039-23 Messor helleniusBGANT040-23 Messor helleniusBGANT050-23 Messor helleniusBGANT052-23 Messor helleniusBGANT055-23 Messor helleniusBGANT057-23 Messor helleniusBGANT066-23 Messor cf. hellenius|BGANT072-23 Messor helleniusBGANT058-23 Messor helleniusBGANT071-23 Messor helleniusBGANT089-23 Messor helleniusBGANT090-23 Messor helleniusBGANT051-23 Messor helleniusBGANT054-23 Messor helleniusBGANT069-23 Messor helleniusBGANT035-23 Messor helleniusBGANT053-23 Messor helleniusBGANT056-23 Messor helleniusBGANT061-23 Messor helleniusBGANT064-23 Messor hellenius|BGANT068-23 Messor ponticus|BGANT062-23 Messor ponticus|BGANT063-23 Messor ponticus|DQ074353 Messor ponticus|BGANT031-23 Messor ibericus|BGANT021-23 Messor ibericus|BGANT023-23 Messor ibericus|BGANT025-23 Messor ibericus|BGANT059-23 Messor ibericus|BGANT077-23 Messor ibericus|BGANT094-23 Messor ibericus|KT184511-23 Messor mcarthuri|BGANT015-23 Messor mcarthuri|BGANT091-23 Messor mcarthuri|KT184569-23 Messor structor|BGANT036-23 Messor structor|BGANT045-23 Messor structor|BGANT046-23 Messor structor|BGANT027-23 Messor structor|BGANT024-23 Messor structor|BGANT038-23 Messor structor|BGANT022-23 Messor structor|BGANT026-23 Messor structor|BGANT034-23 Messor structor|BGANT042-23 Messor structor|BGANT044-23 Messor structor|BGANT048-23 Messor structor|BGANT049-23 Messor structor|BGANT041-23 Messor structor|BGANT047-23 Messor structor|BGANT067-23 Messor structor|BGANT037-23 Messor structor|KT184551 Messor oertzeni|BGANT013-23 Messor oertzeni|BGANT014-23 Messor oertzeni|BGANT073-23 Messor sp. 2|BGANT009-23 Messor cf. structor|BGANT032-23 Messor wasmanni|BGANT007-23 Messor wasmanni|BGANT008-23 Messor wasmanni|BGANT011-23 Messor wasmanni|BGANT074-23 Messor wasmanni|BGANT079-23 Messor wasmanni|BGANT060-23 Messor wasmanni|BGANT081-23 Messor wasmanni|BGANT082-23 Messor wasmanni|BGANT083-23 Messor wasmanni|BGANT084-23 Messor wasmanni|BGANT085-23 Messor wasmanni|BGANT086-23 Messor wasmanni|BGANT088-23 Messor sp. 1|BGANT003-23 Messor sp. 1|BGANT004-23 Messor sp. 1|BGANT010-23 Messor sp. 1|BGANT070-23 Messor atanassovii|BGANT002-23 Messor atanassovii|BGANT005-23 Messor atanassovii|BGANT012-23 Messor atanassovii|BGANT001-23 Messor atanassovii|BGANT078-23 Messor creticus|BGANT087-23 Aphaenogaster festae|BGANT095-23 Tree scale: 0.01 97.0 1.00 1.00 0.53 1.00 0.98 1.00 0.97 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.97 1.00 1.00 0.94 0.79 1.00 59.0 0.95 0.97 0.93 0.68 1.00 0.55 0.59 1.00 0.80 1.00 1.00 0.71 1.00 0.95 0.95 0.98 1.00 1.00 0.66 1.00 0.99 0.69 Phylogenetic tree based on Bayesian inference (BI) analysis of COI gene fragment. Nodal support is given as posterior probability values. We considered significantly high nodal support for posterior probabilities (PP) > 0.95, and moderately good support for PP > 0.90–0.94.