Tapinoma melanocephalum
Creators: name: Sharaf, Mostafa R.
name: Abdel-Dayem, Mahmoud S.
name: Mohamed, Amr A.
name: Fisher, Brian L.
name: Aldawood, Abdulrahman S.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Formicidae
Tapinoma
Tapinoma melanocephalum

description: <i>Tapinoma melanocephalum</i> (Fabricius, 1793) (Fig. 2 A–C) <i>Formica melanocephala</i> Fabricius, 1793: 353 (w.) French Guiana. Neotropical. <b> <i>Diagnosis.</i> Worker.</b> This species is easily recognized among the members of the genus by its small size (1.20–1.90 mm) and bicolored body. Head and mesosoma brown to dark brown, antennae, maxillary palps and mandibles pale brown to yellow, gaster and legs pale yellow; prothorax laterally compressed, broadening anteriorly; mesosoma without erect hairs. <b> <i>Material examined</i>.</b> Qatar, Rawdet Rashed, 12.iii.2005, (M.S. Abdel-Dayem leg.), 25°14.006’N, 51°12.286’E, 1 w, (KSMA). <b> <i>Geographic distribution</i>.</b> This successful invasive species has a remarkable worldwide spread (Wetterer 2009). On the Arabian Peninsula it was collected from KSA and Oman (Collingwood 1985), Yemen (Collingwood and Agosti 1996) including the Socotra Archipelago (Sharaf <i>et al</i>. 2017), and UAE (Collingwood <i>et al</i>. 1997). The present collection represents the first record for Qatar. <b> <i>Ecological and biological notes</i>.</b> This species has remarkably diverse habitat preferences (Wetterer 2009, Sharaf <i>et al.</i> 2017) that range from humid and dry soil of wild vegetation to urban sites rich in organic matter, under bark and stones, in leaf litter, and sometimes nests in walls and potted plants indoors (Ellison <i>et al.</i> 2012).
description: Published as part of <i>Sharaf, Mostafa R., Abdel-Dayem, Mahmoud S., Mohamed, Amr A., Fisher, Brian L. &amp; Aldawood, Abdulrahman S., 2020, A Preliminary Synopsis of the Ant Fauna (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Qatar with Remarks on the Zoogeography, pp. 533-560 in Annales Zoologici 70 (4)</i> on pages 536-537, DOI: 10.3161/00034541anz2020.70.4.005, http://zenodo.org/record/4433537
description: {"references": ["Fabricius, J. C. 1793. Entomologia systematica emendata et aucta. Secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, adjectis synonimis, locis observationibus, descriptionibus. Tome 2. Hafniae [= Copenhagen]: C. G. Proft, 519 pp.", "Wetterer, J. K. 2009. Worldwide spread of the ghost ant, Tapinoma melanocephalum (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Myrmecological News, 12: 23 - 33.", "Collingwood, C. A. 1985. Hymenoptera: Fam. Formicidae of Saudi Arabia. Fauna of Saudi Arabia, 7: 230 - 302.", "Sharaf, M. R., Fisher, B. L., Collingwood, C. A. and S. A. Aldawood. 2017. Ant fauna (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of the Socotra Archipelago (Yemen): zoogeography, distribution and description of a new species. Journal of Natural History, 51: 317 - 378.", "Collingwood, C. A., Tigar, B. J. and Agosti, D. 1997. Introduced ants in the United Arab Emirates. Journal of Arid Environments, 37: 505 - 512.", "Ellison, A. M., Gotelli, N. J., Farnsworth, E. J. and G. D. Alpert. 2012. A field guide to the ants of New England. New Haven (CT): Yale University Press; xv + 398 pp."]}