Lepisiota elegantissima Collingwood & van Harten, 2011

Cedric A. Collingwood, Donat Agosti, Mostafa R. Sharaf & Antonius van Harten, 2011, Order Hymenoptera, family Formicidae, Arthropod fauna of the UAE 4, pp. 1-70 : 60-61

Lepisiota elegantissima Collingwood & van Harten nov. spec.

Plates 108–109

Specimens examined: Holotype: ☿, United Arab Emirates, Wadi Maidaq [25°18'N 56°07'E], 26.x– 9.xi.2006, in yellow and white water traps, leg. A. van Harten ( NHML) . Paratypes: 5 ☿, same data as holotype but in Liverpool Museum; 1 ☿, same data but 15–31.x.2010. Three workers collected from Malaise trap at Wadi Wurayah, 18–25.iii.2007, are in alcohol and were not included in the type series.

Description: Head and gaster black, midbody and petiole yellowish brown. Legs and antennae yellow, the apical parts of mid and hind femora are suffusedly blackish. Surface sculpture dull, finely reticulate. Petiole long with very short blunt lateral processes (teeth). Propodeum with a pair of fine upright teeth. Mesonotum tube-like, very thin, narrow and long relative to pronotum and propodeum.

Measurements (in mm): Total length 4.25–4.60; head length 0.80–0.82; head width 0.46– 0.61, scapus length 2.0, eye diameter 0.23, petiole width 0.16; petiole length 0.56; propodeal teeth 0.09; mesonotal width 0.16; mesonotal length 0.24; hind tibia 2.04; pronotum 0.90 long, 1.46 wide. Scape index 4.44 (excessively long in comparison to other species). No dorsal hairs except for a few on clypeus and some very short hairs on petiole.

Differential diagnosis: An elegant elongate species with long legs and antennae, differing from L. arenaria and L. longinoda by its blunt petiole and long narrow mid-body.

Etymology: The species epiphet elegantissima is derived from ‘elegans’, Latin for elegant, meaning most elegant, referring to the shape of this very beautiful species.

Figures

Plates 108–109. Lepisiota elegantissima Collingwood & van Harten nov. spec. 108: Holotype, lateral view(Photograph by C.van Achterberg);109:Paratype, dorsal view(Photograph by P.J. Attewell)