The ant genus Carebara Westwood in the Arabian Peninsula (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

Mostafa R Sharaf; Abdulrahman S Aldawood

doi:10.3897/zookeys.357.5946

The ant genus Carebara Westwood in the Arabian Peninsula (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

Zookeys. 2013 Dec 2:(357):67-83. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.357.5946. eCollection 2013.

Authors

Mostafa R Sharaf¹, Abdulrahman S Aldawood¹

Affiliation

¹ Plant Protection Department, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, PO Box 2460, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

The ant genus Carebara of the Arabian Peninsula is revised. Carebara abuhurayri Sharaf & Aldawood, 2011 is synonymized under Carebara arabica Collingwood & van Harten, 2001. Carebara arabica is redescribed and a Neotype is fixed based on a specimen collected from southwestern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A new species, C. fayrouzae sp. n. is described from Saudi Arabia based on queens, major and minor workers. Keys to major and minor workers of the two Arabian Carebara species are given.

Keywords: Myrmicinae; Palearctic region; Saudi Arabia; key; new species; taxonomy.