Monomorium floricola (Jerdon, 1851)

Fig. 40

Atta floricola Jerdon, 1851: 107 (w) India. Indomalaya.

Diagnosis

An easily recognizable species by color with head and gaster uniformly dark brown or black, mesosoma, petiole, and postpetiole clear yellow; the petiolar node low and broadly conical, little higher than postpetiole in profile; body surface unsculptured and glossy.

Material examined

OMAN – Dhofar • 1 w; Ayn Dirbat; 17.106° N, 54.453° E; alt. 207 m; 17 Nov. 2017; SF; M.R. Sharaf leg.; KSMA .

Ecological and biological notes

Workers were collected foraging in leaf litter under a tree of Ziziphus sp. Although the gynes of M. floricola are wingless apparently affecting colony dispersal, the species has successfully spread into the tropics and subtropics (Wetterer 2010b). This species can nest in tiny cavities in temperate regions where buildings, especially greenhouses, are heated. A ‘budding phenomenon’ is known for colonies of this species where large colonies divide into smaller colonies (Snelling 2005; Wetterer 2010b). In addition, colonies are polygynous and polydomous. These biological and ecological characteristics have apparently allowed M. floricola to successfully colonize new habitats world-wide.

Geographic range

It was originally described from India, but now is a successful pantropical tramp species known from the Afrotropical (Bolton 1987), the Malagasy (Heterick 2006), the Nearctic (Krombein et al. 1979), the Neotropical (Kempf 1972), and the Polynesian (Wilson & Taylor 1967) Regions. This species is a new record for Oman and the Arabian Peninsula.