Tetramorium bicarinatum ( Nylander, 1846 )

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 : 1760

Tetramorium bicarinatum ( Nylander, 1846)

( Figure 35 )

Myrmica bicarinata Nylander, 1846, p. 1061 (in text) (w.q.) USA (California). Nearctic.

Diagnosis

Worker. Head, mesosoma, and waist segments yellow to orange-brown, gaster always darker, dark brown to black; anterior clypeal margin with median impression; mandibles distinctly longitudinally striated; mesosoma, petiole and postpetiole strongly reticulaterugulose; scapes when laid back from their insertions fail to reach posterior margin of head; metanotal groove feebly impressed or indistinct; propodeal spines relatively long and acute; body surface with abundant scattered long setae.

Material examined

One site: 12.

Geographic range. A successful cosmopolitan species widely distributed in tropical and subtropical habitats of all zoogeographical regions ( Bolton 1980; Hita Garcia and Fisher 2011) and with unknown native origin, supposedly Afrotropical ( Creighton 1950; Brown 1957; Taylor and Wilson 1961; Wilson and Taylor 1967) or Oriental ( Deyrup et al. 2000; Astruc et al. 2001). On the Arabian Peninsula, it was reported from Yemen ( Collingwood and van Harten 2005), the KSA (Sharaf et al. 1012), and the UAE ( Collingwood et al. 1997, 2011).

Ecology and biology. Nests are built directly in the earth, under bark, under stones and logs ( Sharaf 2006), in dead wood or hollow stems, or under loose bark ( Deyrup et al. 2000); it is frequently encountered in heated greenhouses ( Collingwood 1979), and feeds on living or dead insects as well as honeydew of sap-sucking Homoptera ( Deyrup 2017).

Figures

Figure 35. Tetramorium bicarinatum. Queen. (A) Body in profile. (B) Head in full-face view, ANTWEB1041902, AntWeb.org (Michele Esposito). (C) Distribution map.