Monomorium areniphilum Santschi, 1911

Sharaf, Mostafa R., Abdel-Dayem, Mahmoud S., Mohamed, Amr A., Fisher, Brian L. & Aldawood, Abdulrahman S., 2020, A Preliminary Synopsis of the Ant Fauna (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Qatar with Remarks on the Zoogeography, Annales Zoologici 70 (4), pp. 533-560 : 547-548

Monomorium areniphilum Santschi, 1911

( Fig. 17 A–C)

Monomorium Salomonis var. areniphila Santschi, 1911: 84 (w.) Tunisia. Palearctic.

Diagnosis. Worker. Uniform dark brown with paler tarsi; eyes with 12–14 ommatidia in longest row; mesosoma in profile with the promesonotal outline, with the posterior portion of the mesonotum sharply down curved and descending to impressed metanotal groove; dorsal of mesosoma without standing hairs; propodeal dorsum with a narrow, flattened, median, longitudinal strip.

Material examined. Qatar, Al-Dohuil , 15.iii.2005, 25°22’N, 51°29’E, (M.S. Abdel-Dayem leg.), 8w; Rawdet Rashed , 12.iii.2005, 25°14.006’N, 51°12.286’E, (M.S. Abdel-Dayem leg.), 47w; Doha. 08.iii.2005, 25°18‘N, 51°25‘E, (M.S. Abdel-Dayem leg.), 31w; Al-Rayyan, 08.iii.2005, 25°18’N, 51°25’E, (M.S. Abdel-Dayem leg.), 26w, ( KSMA).

Monomorium tumaire Collingwood & Agosti, 1996

( Fig. 19 A–B)

Monomorium tumaire Collingwood & Agosti, 1996: 356 , fig. 29 (w.) Saudi Arabia. Afrotropic.

Diagnosis. Worker. Color light brown or yellowbrown; metanotal groove shallowly impressed; propodeal furrow distinct; underside of head with numerous hairs, the longest exceeding the maximum eye length; posterior margin of head with two pairs of hairs; pronotum with one pair of hairs, petiole with one pair and postpetiole with two pairs of hairs; gaster with 12–16 suberect hairs on the first tergite; head and mesosoma shallowly reticulate-punctate.

Previous records. Qatar, Doha, 25°17’N, 51°30’E, 22.ix.2005, (M. Lush leg.) .

Geographic distribution. Monomorium tumaire was originally described from KSA and is endemic to the Arabian Peninsula, where it is reported from KSA, Oman, UAE ( Tigar and Collingwood 1993, Collingwood and Agosti 1996, Collingwood et al. 2011), and Qatar ( Lush 2009).

Geographic distribution. The species is widely distributed throughout the Saharan and sub-Saharan Africa ( Bolton 1987, Sharaf 2006) and extending eastward to the Arabian Peninsula: KSA, Kuwait, Oman, UAE, and Yemen ( Collingwood 1985; Collingwood and Agosti 1996; Collingwood et al. 2011). This material represents the first record from.

Figures

Figure 17. Monomorium areniphilum, worker, A, body in profile B, body in dorsal view C, head in full-face view, CASENT0048600 (April Nobile), www.AntWeb.org.

Figure 19. Monomorium tumaire, syntype worker, A, body in profile B, head in full-face view, CASENT0922347 (Michele Esposito), www.AntWeb.org.