Tapinoma melanocephalum ( Fabricius, 1793 )

Sharaf, Mostafa R., Wetterer, James K., Mohamed, AbdulAziz M. A., Georgiadis, Christos, Nasser, Mohamed G. & Aldawood, Abdulrahman S., 2024, Filling gaps in global myrmecology: ants of the Kingdom of Bahrain (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), Journal of Natural History 58 (41 - 44), pp. 1705-1786 : 1711

Tapinoma melanocephalum ( Fabricius, 1793)

( Figure 3 )

Formica melanocephala Fabricius, 1793, p. 353 (w.) French Guiana. Neotropic.

Diagnosis

Worker. This species is easily recognised by its small size (TL 1.5–2 mm) and the bicoloured body, with head and mesosoma brown or dark brown, antennae and mandibles yellow-brown to yellow, gaster and legs yellow; pronotum distinctly broad in dorsal view; mesosoma without erect hairs; petiole flattened and concealed from dorsal view.

Material examined. Three sites: 12; 13; 17.

Geographic range. This is an invasive species, widely disseminated by commerce across the Old World and New World in both the northern and southern hemispheres ( Wetterer 2009) and with a presumed African or Asian native range ( Klotz et al. 2008). It has been reported from all countries of the Arabian Peninsula including the KSA and Oman ( Collingwood 1985; Sharaf et al. 2023), Qatar ( Sharaf et al. 2020b), Kuwait ( Collingwood and Agosti 1996), Yemen ( Collingwood and Agosti 1996; Sharaf et al. 2017), and the UAE ( Collingwood et al. 1997).

Ecology and biology. This species has diverse nesting habits. It is common to find workers in leaf litter samples ( Wetterer 2009; Sharaf et al. 2017), in dry microhabitats near buildings, under bark, in dry sticks, in rotten wood, in plant cavities and detritus, in decaying organic matter, in dead mangrove branches, under debris or rocks, and at the bases of dead palm fronds ( Klotz et al. 2008; Deyrup 2017). In the Socotra Archipelago, the species prefers to nest in mountainous wild territories where a diversity of vegetation exists, and the soil has a considerable amount of humidity and decayed animal faeces. It was also observed under the bark of a recently cut dragon blood tree, Dracaena cinnabari Balf. f. ( Asparagaceae ) and associated with curculionid beetles ( Sharaf et al. 2017). In the KSA, the species was collected from a wild valley in the Jazan Province (Sharaf et al. unpublished data). The feeding habits include honeydew of hemipterans, extrafloral nectaries, and sugary foodstuff ( Smith 1965; Osborne et al. 1995). The species can be a potential predator of the two-spotted spider mite, small larvae of beetles and moths, eggs of some hemipteran species ( Osborne et al. 1995), eggs of housefly ( Smith 1965), and beneficial insects applied for biological control in greenhouses ( Klotz et al. 2008). The species also acts as a mechanical vector of pathogenic bacteria in many hospitals in Brazil ( Ulloa-Chacón and Jaramillo 2003; Zarzuela et al. 2005).

Figures

Figure 3. Tapinoma melanocephalum. Worker. (A) Body in profile. (B) Head in full-face view, ANTWEB1041887, AntWeb.org (Michele Esposito). (C) Distribution map.