Tapinoma simrothi Krausse 1911
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 simrothi

description: <i>Tapinoma simrothi</i> Krausse, 1911 (Fig. 3 A–C, 4 A–C) <i>Tapinoma erraticum</i> var. <i>simrothi</i> Krausse, 1911: 18 (w.) Italy (Sardinia). Palearctic. <b> <i>Diagnosis.</i> Worker.</b> Anterior clypeal margin with a slit-like median notch; scapes relatively long, when laid back from their insertions surpass posterior margin of head by about one third of scape length; funicular segments at least twice as long as broad; body surfaces covered with dense appressed pubescence; body color uniformly dark brown to black with legs including tarsi uniformly brownish. <b> <i>Material examined</i>.</b> Qatar, Doha, Al-Rayyan, 12.iii.2005, (M.S. Abdel-Dayem leg.), 8w, (KSMA). <b> <i>Geographic distribution</i>.</b> A Palearctic species, distributed across northern and southern Mediterranean Basin (Sharaf 2006) and eastwards to most of Arabian Peninsula (Collingwood 1985, Collingwood and Agosti 1996, Collingwood <i>et al</i>. 1997), Iran and Afghanistan. This material represents the first record for Qatar. <b> <i>Ecological and biological notes</i>.</b> <i>Tapinoma simrothi</i> was observed in Riyadh Province (KSA) nesting among roots of graminae plants, attending unidentified mealybugs under a discarded carpet, and coexisting with <i>Solenopsis abdita</i> Thompson, 1989 (Senior synonym of <i>S. saudiensis</i> Sharaf and Aldawood, 2011 (Sharaf <i>et al.</i> 2020 c)). The species is also known to attend aphids, protecting these insects from predators (Karami-jamour <i>et al.</i> 2018).
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 page 537, DOI: 10.3161/00034541anz2020.70.4.005, http://zenodo.org/record/4433537
description: {"references": ["Krausse, A. H. 1911. Uber Messor structor Ltr. und einige andere Ameisen auf Sardinien. Bollettino della Societa Entomologica Italiana, 41: 14 - 18.", "Sharaf, M. R. 2006. Taxonomic and ecological studies on family Formicidae (Order: Hymenoptera) in Egypt including some protectorates with a study of some insect fauna associated with ant species [unpublished thesis]. Cairo: Ain Shams University, Faculty of Science, Entomology Department, 340 pp.", "Collingwood, C. A. 1985. Hymenoptera: Fam. Formicidae of Saudi Arabia. Fauna of Saudi Arabia, 7: 230 - 302.", "Collingwood, C. A. and Agosti, D. 1996. Formicidae (Insecta: Hymenoptera) of Saudi Arabia (Part 2). Fauna of Arabia, 15: 300 - 385.", "Collingwood, C. A., Tigar, B. J. and Agosti, D. 1997. Introduced ants in the United Arab Emirates. Journal of Arid Environments, 37: 505 - 512.", "Sharaf, M. R. and A. S. Aldawood. 2011. First occurrence of Solenopsis Westwood 1840 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with description of a new species S. saudiensis n. sp. Annales de la Societe Entomologique de France, 47: 474 - 479.", "Sharaf, M. R., Gotzek, D., Guenard, B., Fisher, B. L., Aldawood, A. S., Al Dhafer, H. M., A. A. Mohamed. 2020 c. Molecular phylogenetic analysis and morphological reassessments of thief ants identify a new potential case of biological invasions. Scientific Reports, 10: 12040, https: // doi. org / 10.1038 / s 41598 - 020 - 69029 - 4."]}