Strumigenys membranifera Emery, 1869

Sharaf, Mostafa R., Abdel-Dayem, Mahmoud S., Mohamed, Amr A., Fisher, Brian L. & Aldawood, Abdulrahman S., 2020, A Preliminary Synopsis of the Ant Fauna (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Qatar with Remarks on the Zoogeography, Annales Zoologici 70 (4), pp. 533-560 : 550-551

Strumigenys membranifera Emery, 1869

( Fig. 23 A–C)

Strumigenys (Trichoscapa) membranifera Emery, 1869: 24 , fig. 11 (w.) Italy. Palearctic.

Diagnosis. Worker. Dull yellow to yellow-brown; masticatory margin of mandibles armed with 12 teeth; anterior clypeal margin broadly and weakly convex; eyes minute, with few ommatidia, located at ventral margin of antennal scrobes; metanotal groove absent; spongiform appendages of petiole and postpetiole massively developed; cephalic surfaces reticulate-punctate; sides of mesosoma smooth; propodeal dorsum and declivity smooth; cephalic pilosity restricted to one pair of hairs situated at highest point of vertex; cephalic dorsum with sparse, minute, appressed pubescence; lateral margins of head, clypeus with its anterior and lateral margins, and humeral pronotal angles all without projecting hairs; dorsal surfaces of petiole, postpetiole, and gaster bare.

Material examined. Qatar, Rawdat Al Faras, Qatar University Farm for Training and Research, 25°48’N, 51°20.4’E, 21.v.2015 (M. R. Sharaf leg.), 1w ; Saudi Arabia, Qassim , Buraydah, 26.36°N, 44.03°E, 653 m a.s.l., 19.x.2013 (S. Salman leg.), (2 workers CASENT0914337, CASENT0914338) .

Geographic distribution. A successful, broadly spread, pantropical tramp species originally described from Italy, introduced into most zoogeographical regions worldwide by human commerce ( Bolton 1983, Bolton 2000, Wetterer 2011). In the Arabian Peninsula, the species is known from KSA, UAE ( Sharaf et al. 2014), and Qatar ( Sharaf et al. 2015).

Ecological and biological notes. Strumigenys membranifera seems to prefer habitats with some degree of ecological disturbance ( Wetterer 2011, Tang et al. 2019) where nests are built in the dry or semidry soil of lawn and pastures ( Wilson and Hunt 1967, Deyrup 1997, OrdÓÑez-Urbano et al. 2008) and in the soil of date palm plantations ( Sharaf et al. 2015).

Figures

Figure 23. Strumigenys membranifera, worker, A, body in profile B, body in dorsal view C, head in full-face view, CASENT0914338 (Michele Esposito), www.AntWeb.org.