Trichomyrmex

Mostafa R. Sharaf, Shehzad Salman, Hathal M. Al Dhafer, Shahid A. Akbar, Mahmoud S. Abdel-Dayem & Abdulrahman S. Aldawood, 2016, Taxonomy and distribution of the genus Trichomyrmex Mayr, 1865 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in the Arabian Peninsula, with the description of two new species, European Journal of Taxonomy 246, pp. 1-36 : 31

Distribution of Arabian Trichomyrmex species.

Geographic distributions of the Trichomyrmex species in the Arabian Peninsula are shown in Figs 14–17 .

Discussion

Among the nine species of the genus Trichomyrmex reported from the Arabian Peninsula, T. mayri and T. destructor are the most abundant ones. However, T. mayri is the most successfully distributed species, since it has the ability to establish itself in a broad range of habitats, including desert and agricultural, wild and urban, pristine and disturbed sites ( Collingwood 1985; Collingwood & Agosti 1996; Collingwood et al. 1997, 2011). These observations agree with Collingwood et al. (2004) and Sharaf et al. (in press) on Socotra, where T. mayri has a broad distributional range on the Archipelago, occurring in different habitats. The species is also recorded from different localities in Egypt, including the Sinai and Nile Delta ( Sharaf 2006). The two species are recorded here for the first time from Qatar, which is not surprising, especially under the intensive urbanization that has occurred recently (UNCSD 2004).

Trichomyrmex mayri is most similar to T. destructor in all morphological characters except the colour, which is uniform dark brown in the former and yellow to brown yellow with a dark brown gaster in the latter. Although the separation of species based on colour is a feeble character, especially for genera that having distinct colour variation, like Trichomyrmex and Monomorium , it is observed that the colour is consistent for the studied material of both species in the Arabian Peninsula; therefore, we treat both as valid species. However, it is likely that a future probability for synonymizing mayri and destructor exists especially when using molecular techniques. Trichomyrmex abyssinicus is reported here for the first time from Saudi Arabia. The newly described species T. almosayari sp. nov. and T. shakeri sp. nov. appear to be restricted to Riyadh Province (Central region). Relatively few specimens of the three species have been collected despite intensive efforts using a variety of sampling methods. All specimens were collected using pitfall traps.

Figures

Fig. 14. Distribution map of Trichomyrmex abyssinicus (Forel, 1894 a), T. almosayari sp. nov., T. chobauti (Emery, 1897), T. lameerei (Forel, 1902) and T. shakeri sp. nov.

Fig. 15. Distribution map of Trichomyrmex destructor (Jerdon, 1851).

Fig. 16. Distribution map of Trichomyrmex mayri (Forel, 1902).

Fig. 17. Distribution map of Trichomyrmex perplexus (Radchenko, 1997) and T. robustior (Forel, 1892).