Monomorium abeillei André, 1881

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 : 1746

Monomorium abeillei André, 1881

( Figure 26 )

Monomorium abeillei André, 1881b, p. 531 (w.) Israel. Palaearctic.

Diagnosis

Worker. Colour uniform brown-black to black; with 9–10 ommatidia in longest row; mesosoma in profile with promesonotal dorsum meeting flat propodeum at oblique angle; metanotal groove feebly impressed; propodeum with well-defined, longitudinal furrow; petiole in profile with high, rounded triangular dorsum; pronotum and petiole each with one pair of setae, postpetiole with two pairs; head, pronotum, and nodes superficially reticulate; gaster shining with superficial sculpture.

Material examined

Fourteen sites: 2; 3; 4; 8; 9; 10; 11; 13; 15; 21; 24; 27; 29; 30.

Geographic range. A palaearctic species originally described from Israel and widespread in countries of the Middle East including Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Syria ( Borowiec and Salata 2020), and all countries of the Arabian Peninsula: the KSA, Kuwait, Oman, Yemen ( Collingwood 1985; Collingwood and Agosti 1996; Sharaf et al. 2021), Qatar ( Sharaf et al. 2020a), and the UAE ( Tigar and Collingwood 1993; Collingwood et al. 2011). It is one of the most common Monomorium species in the KSA.

Ecology and biology. The habitat preference of M. abeillei includes sandy desert ( Collingwood and Agosti 1996), leaf litter (Sharaf, unpublished data), coastal areas, and high ground in the Asir mountains above 2200 m.a.s.l. ( Collingwood 1985). In the Riyadh Province ( KSA), it nests in sandy habitats and forages next to Rhazya stricta Decnet ( Apocynaceae ) in the Rawdhat Khorim National Park ( Salman 2018).

Figures

Figure 26. Monomorium abeillei. Lectotype worker. (A) Body in profile. (B) Head in full-face view, CASENT0915411, AntWeb.org (Will Ericson). (C) Distribution map.