Tetramorium lanuginosum Mayr, 1870

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 : 1765

Tetramorium lanuginosum Mayr, 1870

( Figure 38 )

Tetramorium lanuginosum Mayr, 1870, p. 976 (w.) Indonesia (Java). Indomalaya.

Diagnosis

Worker. This species is readily recognised by the following characters: yellow-brown to dark brown, gaster darker than head and gaster anterior clypeal margin with small median impression; frontal carinae strongly developed; antennal scrobes well developed; antennal scapes relatively developed; eyes with 8–10 ommatidia in longest row; mesosoma convex in profile without metanotal groove; propodeal spines relatively long and acute; clypeus longitudinally rugose; cephalic surface reticulate-rugose; mesosoma, petiole and postpetiole reticulate-rugose; gaster smooth, and shining; body surface with profuse long bifid and simple setae.

Material examined

Three sites: 10; 13; 31.

Geographic range. This is a successful cosmopolitan invasive species that is reported from all zoogeographical regions ( Wetterer 2010; Hita Garcia and Fisher 2011) and with a suggested tropical Asian origin ( Taylor and Wilson 1961; Wilson and Taylor 1967; Bolton 1976; Collingwood et al. 2004). On the Arabian Peninsula, it is known from the KSA ( Collingwood 1985; Collingwood and Agosti 1996), Yemen ( Wetterer 2010), Oman ( Sharaf et al. 2018a), and the UAE (unpublished data).

Ecology and biology. The nesting habitats are diverse and include places under the trunk of fallen, dead palm trees, directly in the earth in moist, dry organic-rich soil, and in dry soil under date palm trees ( Sharaf et al. 2017). This species is a general predator and scavenger ( Bolton 1976; Deyrup 2017).

Figures

Figure 38. Tetramorium lanuginosum. Worker. (A) Body in profile. (B) Head in full-face view, ANTWEB1041901, AntWeb.org (Michele Esposito). (C) Distribution map.