Lepisiota canescens ( Emery, 1897 )

Sharaf, Mostafa R., Wetterer, James K., Mohamed, Amr A. & Aldawood, Abdulrahman S., 2022, Faunal composition, diversity, and distribution of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Dhofar Governorate, Oman, with updated list of the Omani species and remarks on zoogeography, European Journal of Taxonomy 838 (1), pp. 1-106 : 25-27

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.5852/ejt.2022.838.1925

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:D495BCAE-9E03-4424-A01B-87F1CEB16B9C

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7094385

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/1461EC42-FF88-FFA2-FDD9-00211333FE0D

treatment provided by

Felipe

scientific name

Lepisiota canescens ( Emery, 1897 )
status

 

Lepisiota canescens ( Emery, 1897) View in CoL

Fig. 15 View Fig

Acantholepis capensis var. canescens Emery, 1897: 601 (w) Somalia. Afrotropic.

Diagnosis

Body entirely black; general appearance moderately shining; pilosity long and abundant, especially on gaster; pronotum with five pairs of setae; whole body smooth except mesopleura transversely striate.

Material examined

OMAN – Dhofar • 6 w; Ayn Ashat ; 16.998° N, 53.820° E; alt. 202 m; 21 Nov. 2017; BS; M.R. Sharaf leg.; KSMA GoogleMaps 9 w; Ayn Razat ; 17.124° N, 54.238° E; alt. 98 m; 20 Nov. 2017; HP; M.R. Sharaf leg.; KSMA GoogleMaps 1 w; Dhalkout ; 16.727° N, 53.249° E; alt. 623 m; 18 Nov. 2017; HP; M.R. Sharaf leg.; KSMA GoogleMaps 1 w; same collection data as for preceding; CASENT0922846; CASC GoogleMaps .

Ecological and biological notes

This species was collected from a small tree of Vachellia using a beating sheet, whereas several individuals were found in leaf litter under another tree of Vachellia where the soil was dry.

Geographic range

This species was originally described from Somalia and was subsequently recorded from Oman and Yemen ( Collingwood & Agosti 1996), and KSA ( Collingwood 1985). It has also been reported from Israel ( Vonshak & Ionescu-Hirsch 2009) and Ethiopia ( Sorger et al. 2017). Our records indicate that this species is relatively widely distributed in the southwestern mountains of the KSA where trees of Vachellia are abundant. This species has invaded a wide range of environments in Ethiopia and has the potential to become invasive affecting native species ( Sorger et al. 2017). This species is reported for the first time in Dhofar.

Remarks

There are several infraspecific taxa of dubious identity originally described as varieties of Lepisiota capensis ( Mayr, 1862) , mostly known from the Afrotropical Region ( Bolton 1995). The taxonomy of this group of species is poorly understood with numerous possible synonymies and other taxonomic amendment. This situation leads to difficulties in identification and uncertainty of species delimitations, but Taylor (2019) has sought to provide some clarification.

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Hymenoptera

Family

Formicidae

Genus

Lepisiota

Loc

Lepisiota canescens ( Emery, 1897 )

Sharaf, Mostafa R., Wetterer, James K., Mohamed, Amr A. & Aldawood, Abdulrahman S. 2022
2022
Loc

Acantholepis capensis var. canescens

Emery C. 1897: 601
1897
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