nigripes group

Diagnosis

Workers and females: Cataglyphis ants with the following diagnostic characters:

1. Petiole nodiform (Fig. 9).

2. MPI> 90; third segment compressed in cross-section.

3. Bicoloured with a red head and alitrunk and a black gaster, matt.

4. FI> 160.

5. Alitrunk length of large workers <5-0mm.

6. Erect hairs on the body black.

Males: Cataglyphis ants with the following diagnostic characters:

1. Uniform black or with a reddish or yellow gaster.

2. Subgenital plate short (SPI <125); with two distal, lateral, short rounded processes and a median part which is medially deeply emarginate (Fig. 19).

3. Squamula caudally not projecting over the stipes (Fig. 34).

4. Stipes with a simple, median appendix with its largest diameter shorter than half the length of the stipes (Fig. 34).

5. Volsella curved, distally truncated (Fig. 54).

6. Sagitta with a large apical tooth and a prominent, blunt medioapical appendix (Fig. 69).

Distribution

The nigripes species-group is monotypic and the single species is distributed in northwestern Iran up to 1500 m in semideserts and in the foothills of the Transcaucasus (Arnoldi, 1964).