Lepisiota spinisquama ( Kuznetsov-Ugamsky, 1929 )

Sharaf, Mostafa R., Wetterer, James K., Mohamed, AbdulAziz M. A., Georgiadis, Christos, Nasser, Mohamed G. & Aldawood, Abdulrahman S., 2024, Filling gaps in global myrmecology: ants of the Kingdom of Bahrain (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), Journal of Natural History 58 (41 - 44), pp. 1705-1786 : 1728

Lepisiota spinisquama ( Kuznetsov-Ugamsky, 1929)

( Figure 14 )

Acantholepis frauenfeldi subsp. spinisquama Kuznetsov-Ugamsky, 1929, p. 483 , fig. 3

(w.) Kazakhstan. Palaearctic.

Diagnosis

Worker. Colour black, antennae, tibiae, and tarsi yellow; antennal scapes surpassing posterior margin of head by more than half of its length when laid back from their insertions; propodeal spines short, acute, and curved in profile; petiole bituberculate; pronotum with a single pair of long hairs; body smooth and shining.

Material examined. One site: 2.

Geographic range. This species was originally described from Kazakhstan, and it has been recorded from Iran ( Pashaei Rad et al. 2018), the KSA ( Collingwood and Agosti 1996; Sharaf et al. 2023), Yemen ( Collingwood and van Harten 2001), UAE (unpublished data), Oman ( Sharaf et al. 2018b; Monks et al. 2019), and the Socotra Archipelago ( Yemen) ( Collingwood et al. 2004; Sharaf et al. 2017).

Ecology and biology. Nests are built directly in the earth under stones, with a remarkable preference for humid soil that is rich in organic matter ( Sharaf et al. 2017), feeding on dead insects and also attending mealybugs ( Hemiptera : Pseudococcidae ). For more details about the biology of species see Sharaf et al. (2017).

Figures

Figure 14. Lepisiota spinisquama. Worker. (A) Body in profile. (B) Head in full-face view, ANTWEB1041923, AntWeb.org (Michele Esposito). (C) Distribution map.