Biodiversity Data Journal :
Taxonomic Paper
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Corresponding author: Mahmoud M Abdel-Dayem (mseleem@ksu.edu.sa)
Academic editor: Francisco Hita Garcia
Received: 17 Mar 2021 | Accepted: 24 May 2021 | Published: 27 May 2021
© 2021 Mahmoud Abdel-Dayem, Hathal Al Dhafer, Abdulrahman Aldawood, Mostafa Sharaf
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Abdel-Dayem MM, Al Dhafer HM, Aldawood AS, Sharaf MR (2021) An update to the taxonomy and distribution of the Arabian Tapinoma Foerster, 1850 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) with an illustrated key and remarks on habitats. Biodiversity Data Journal 9: e66058. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.9.e66058
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Tapinoma Foerster belongs to the ant subfamily Dolichoderinae and the vast majority of its species are arboreal or generalised foragers. The genus is composed of 70 described species, 22 known subspecies and six valid fossil species worldwide, while from the Arabian Peninsula, three species have been recorded so far.
Ants of the genus Tapinoma of the Arabian Peninsula are reviewed, keyed and illustrated, based on the worker caste. Three species are diagnosed, T. melanocephalum (Fabricius, 1793), T. simrothi Krausse, 1911 and T. wilsoni Sharaf & Aldawood, 2012. We present the first illustrated key to the Arabian Tapinoma, enhanced by automontage images to facilitate species recognition. New distributional data for species are presented, based on recently-collected material from the region and literature records. Information on habitats' preference and biology of species are given.
Afrotropical Region, Dolichoderinae, endemic, Middle East
The Arabian Peninsula, in western Asia, covers a surface area of 3.2 million km2 comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Yemen (Fig.
The genus Tapinoma was described with the type-species T. collina (junior synonym of Tapinoma erraticum), by monotypy (
The genus was recorded and keyed for the first time from the Arabian Peninsula by two species, Tapinoma melanocephalum (
Tapinoma melanocephalum and T. simrothi, are widely spread either in urban sites or wild habitats of the Arabian Peninsula, including agricultural fields and date palm farms (
The aims of this study are to provide an illustrated key to facilitate Tapinoma species recognition, study the geographical distribution of species and give notes on species habitat preference.
In total, 457 specimens were collected from countries of the Arabian Peninsula (Suppl. material
BMNH, The Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom.
CASC, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, USA.
KSMA, King Saud University Museum of Arthropods, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
JWPC, James Wetterer Private Collection, Wilkes Honors College, Florida Atlantic University, 5353 Parkside Drive, Jupiter, FL 33458, USA
WMLC, World Museum Liverpool, Liverpool, U.K.
Formica melanocephala Fabricius, 1793: 353 (w.) [Note: neotype w. designated by:
Worker. This is an easily recognised species by its bicoloured body (Fig.
KUWAIT: Kuwait City,
Tapinoma melanocephalum is a widely distributed invasive species that is spread by human commerce especially in the Tropics and Subtropics of the Old and New Worlds (
The species inhabits a broad range of habitats worldwide (
Tapinoma erraticum var. simrothi Krausse, 1911a: 18 (w.) Italy (Sardinia). Palearctic.
Worker. Head in full-face view with strongly convex sides and nearly straight posterior margin (Fig.
KUWAIT: Failaka Island; Kuwait; Wadi Umm al-Rumam (Collingwood & Agosti 1996). OMAN: Wahiba Sands (
A Palearctic species (
In SA, T. simrothi was found nesting amongst roots of lawns, attending mealybugs and co-existing with Solenopsis abdita (
Tapinoma wilsoni Sharaf & Aldawood, 2012c: 38, figs. 1-3 (w.) Saudi Arabia. Afrotropic.
Worker. Head in full-face view longer than broad with shallowly convex posterior margin and sides; anterior clypeal margin broadly and distinctly concave; scapes, in full-face view, surpass posterior margin of head by about 1/6 of its length; all funicular segments distinctly longer than broad (Fig.
SA: Al Bahah, Dhi Ayn Archaeological Village,
Saudi Arabia.
Tapinoma wilsoni was found foraging on the ground surface of a Banana farm in Dhi Ayn Archeological Village, a semi-isolated area that is completely surrounded by high mountains of the Al Sarawat Mountains (KSA) and the soil is clay and humid (
Key to the Arabian species of the genus Tapinoma |
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1 | Propodeum in profile with the transition from dorsum to declivity sharply defined, the declivity concave and the angle with a raised apex (Fig. |
T. wilsoni Sharaf & Aldawood |
– | Propodeum in profile with the transition from dorsum to declivity has a rounded angle (Fig. |
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2 | Larger species, TL more than 2.0 mm; anterior clypeal margin with a deep median notch (Fig. |
T. simrothi Krausse |
– | Smaller species, TL less than 2.0 mm; anterior clypeal margin with only a shallow median concavity (Fig. |
T. melanocephalum (Fabricius) |
Key illustrations. Michele Esposito, AntWeb.org.
Amongst the three Arabian Tapinoma species, T. simrothi is the most widespread species, followed by T. melanocephalum, whereas T. wilsoni is the rarest species with a limited geographic distribution confined to the type locality (Dhi Ayn Archeological Village) at the Al Sarawat Mountains, KSA) (Figs
The authors thank James Wetterer and James Trager for useful comments, Brian Fisher, Michele Esposito and Estella Ortega for help in photographing specimens. We are grateful to Shahzad Salman for assistance in the fieldwork. This study was supported by NSTIP Strategic Technologies Programs (project number 12-ENV2825-02) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
All authors contributed equally to this manuscript.
Distribution data of the examined material