Crematogaster delagoensis Forel

Sharaf, Mostafa R., Aldawood, Abdulrahman S. & Garcia, Francisco Hita, 2019, Review of the Arabian Crematogaster Lund (Hymenoptera, Formicidae), synoptic list, distribution, and description of two new species from Oman and Saudi Arabia, ZooKeys 898, pp. 27-81 : 27

Crematogaster delagoensis Forel Figure 14 A–C

Taxonomic history.

Crematogaster inermis r. delagoensis Forel, 1894a: 99 (w.) Mozambique.

Combination in Crematogaster (Acrocoelia) : Emery 1922: 146; in Crematogaster ( Crematogaster) : Bolton 1995: 166.

Status as species: Emery 1922: 146.

Current subspecies: C. delagoensis acutidens Arnold, C. delagoensis merwei Santschi, C. delagoensis rhodesiana Arnold.

Material examined.

KSA: Alnaifiam Farshet Shaal, 22.41559N, 46.58806E, 602 m, 12.iv.2015 (Al Dhafer et al.) (1 w, KSMA).

Geographic range.

This species was originally described from Mozambique and in the Afrotropical region seems to be restricted to Southern Africa ( Guénard et al. 2017; Janicki et al. 2017). Our material represents the first record from the KSA since the species was previously only known from Yemen and Oman ( Borowiec 2014; Collingwood and Agosti 1996; Sharaf et al. 2018) ( Fig. 11 ).

Remarks.

Again, the disjunctive distribution raises some doubts about the identity of our material. Even though it is conspecific the material previously identified from Oman and Yemen, it needs to be proven that it is indeed C. delagoensis . The lack of records from East Africa and the southwestern parts of KSA could be due to insufficient sampling, but it could also be that the Arabian material is not similar to the South African “genuine” C. delagoensis .

Figures

Figure 11. Distribution map of C. auberti and C. delagoensis.

Figure 14. C. delagoensis A body in profile B body in dorsal view C head in full-face view, CASENT 0908517 (Will Ericson), www. AntWeb. org.