Ants of the Monomorium monomorium species-group (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in the Arabian Peninsula with description of a new species from southwestern Saudi Arabia

Mostafa Sharaf; Hathal M Al Dhafer; Abdulrahman S Aldawood; Francisco Hita Garcia

doi:10.7717/peerj.4277

Ants of the Monomorium monomorium species-group (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in the Arabian Peninsula with description of a new species from southwestern Saudi Arabia

PeerJ. 2018 Feb 1:6:e4277. doi: 10.7717/peerj.4277. eCollection 2018.

Authors

Mostafa Sharaf^{1

2}, Hathal M Al Dhafer¹, Abdulrahman S Aldawood¹, Francisco Hita Garcia³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Plant Protection, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
² Division of Invertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY, USA.
³ Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Okinawa, Japan.

Abstract

We revise the taxonomy of the myrmicine ants of the Monomorium monomorium species-group for the Arabian Peninsula. Six species are recognized: Monomorium aeyade Collingwood & Agosti, 1996, M. clavicorne André, 1881, M. exiguum Forel, 1894, M. holothir Bolton, 1987, M. mohammedi sp. n., and M. sarawatense Sharaf & Aldawood, 2013. On the basis of the worker caste, we describe Monomorium mohammedi sp. n. from the southwestern region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). We designate a neotype for Monomorium aeyade Collingwood & Agosti and redescribe and illustrate the worker caste. Furthermore, we provide a worker-based species identification key, distribution maps for the treated species, and ecological and biological notes, if available. Monomorium holothir is recorded for the first time from the KSA. Also, we propose M. clavicorne var. punica Santschi, 1915a as a junior synonym of M. clavicorne, as well as M. dryhimi Aldawood & Sharaf, 2011 and M. montanum Collingwood & Agosti, 1996 to be treated as junior synonyms of Monomorium exiguum.

Keywords: Asir Province; Identification key; Middle East; Myrmicinae; Palearctic region; Revision.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Saud University [RG-1438-010]. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.