Cardiocondyla minutior Forel, 1899

Sharaf, Mostafa R., Wetterer, James K., Mohamed, Amr A. & Aldawood, Abdulrahman S., 2022, Faunal composition, diversity, and distribution of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Dhofar Governorate, Oman, with updated list of the Omani species and remarks on zoogeography, European Journal of Taxonomy 838 (1), pp. 1-106 : 41-44

Cardiocondyla minutior Forel, 1899

Fig. 26

Cardiocondyla nuda var. minutior Forel, 1899: 120 (w) Hawaii. Oceania.

Diagnosis

Head, mesosoma, petiole, and postpetiole dirty yellow to dark brown, gaster brown to black-brown; posterior margin of head straight or shallowly concave; eyes small, with distinct microsetae; anterior clypeal margin with a shallow central concavity; metanotal groove feebly impressed or absent; mesosomal outline in profile nearly straight or weakly convex; propodeal spines short and acute; petiolar node in dorsal view circular and as long as broad; postpetiole low, without anteroventral bulge ( Fig. 26 ).

Material examined

OMAN – Dhofar • 7 w; Ayn Hamran ; 17.086° N, 54.280° E; alt. 56 m; 22 Nov. 2017; SF; M.R. Sharaf leg.; KSMA • 11 w, 1 q; Ayn Dirbat ; 17.106° N, 54.453° E; alt. 207 m; 17 Nov. 2017: SF; M.R. Sharaf leg.; KSMA • 2 w; Ayn Hamran ; 17.100° N, 54.284° E; alt. 106 m; 20 Nov. 2017; SF; M.R. Sharaf leg.; KSMA • 10 w; Ayn Razat ; 17.130° N, 54.236° E; alt. 121 m; 20 Nov. 2017; SF; M.R. Sharaf leg.; KSMA • 1 w; Ayn Ashat ; 16.998° N, 53.820° E; alt. 202 m; 21 Nov. 2017; SF; M.R. Sharaf leg.; KSMA .

Ecological and biological notes

Workers of this species were collected foraging on a small shrub; others were found in leaf litter under several trees including Ziziphus sp. , Prosopis , Vachellia , and Ficus where the soil was rich in organic matter.

Geographic range

Cardiocondyla minutior is a successful tramp species ( Seifert 2003), originally described from Hawaii, and recorded from the Socotra Archipelago by Sharaf et al. (2017c). Our specimens represent a new species record for Oman.

Figures

Fig. 26. Cardiocondyla minutior Forel, 1899, worker (CASENT0922873, AntWeb.org (Michele Esposito)). A. Body in profile. B. Head in full-face view. C. Distribution map.