Description of the queen of the Arabian endemic dolichoderine species wilsoni Sharaf & Aldawood, 2012 (: Formicidae) with the first illustrated key to queens of the Arabian Tapinoma Foerster, 1850

§ L.A. Al-Keridis1, N.M. Gaber1,2, A.S. Aldawood3 & M.R. Sharaf3* 1Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 2Agricultural Research Center, Plant Protection Research Institute, Dokki, Giza, Egypt 3Plant Protection Department, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

We describe the queen caste of the Arabian endemic species Tapinoma wilsoni Sharaf & Aldawood, 2012 from the type locality (Dhi Ayn Archaeological Village) located in the south- western mountains of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Wepresent the first illustrated key to the Arabian Tapinoma Foerster,1850 based on the queen castes. Three species are recognised from the Arabian Peninsula, T. melanocephalum (Fabricius, 1793), T. simrothi Krausse, 1911 and T. wilsoni Sharaf & Aldawood, 2012. Key words: Afrotropical Region, Arabian Peninsula, Dolichderinae, Middle East, Palearctic Region, .

INTRODUCTION The genus Tapinoma was established by the taxonomy of that focused on males (e.g. Foerster (1850) with the type-species T. collina Boudinot 2015; Yoshimura & Fisher 2007; 2009, (junior synonym of Tapinoma erraticum (Latreille, 2011, 2012; Cantone 2017) and few on queens (e.g. 1798)). Currently, the genus includes 71 described Sharaf et al. 2020) have revealed useful morpho- species, 24 valid subspecies and six fossil species logical characters of the sexual castes that can be (Bolton 2020), distributed worldwide in the tropics used in species diagnoses. and warm regions (Brown 2000). The majority The geographical records of the Arabian Tapinoma of Tapinoma species are arboreal or general scaven- have been scattered in several myrmecological gers (Brown 2000) with diverse nesting prefer- papers including T. melanocephalum (Fabricius, ences that includes open soil, under rocks, in 1793), and T. simrothi Krausse, 1911 from the King- rotten or dead wood, in plant material, plant dom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Kuwait, Oman and stems, or inside previously performed cavities and Yemen (Collingwood 1985; Collingwood & Agosti with a special fondness for honeydew produced 1996; Collingwood & Harten 2001; Sharaf et al. by aphids or coccids (Shattuck 1992). 2018), the United Arab Emirates (UAE) (Colling- The genus Tapinoma can be diagnosed by the wood et al. 2011), and the endemic Arabian species, combination of the following characters in the T. wilsoni Sharaf & Aldawood, 2012 that was worker and queen castes (Shattuck 1992): mandi- described from the southwestern mountains of the bles armed with three to seven teeth; propodeal KSA based on the worker caste (Sharaf et al. 2012). dorsum shorter than propodeal declivity; petiole The present work provides the first key to in the form of a reduced scale; first gastral tergite the Arabian ants based on the queen caste and projecting anteriorly and concealing the petiole in presents the first description of the queen caste dorsal view; pronotum without erect hairs. of the Arabian endemic dolicherine species Over the many decades of taxonomic myrmeco- T. wilsoni. logical studies, the taxonomy of Formicidae has relied on the morphological characters of the MATERIAL AND METHODS worker caste for separating species. There is a general lack of association of the sexual castes Measurements and indices (queens and males) for the majority of described These follow standards of Sharaf et al. 2012. species. Recently, numerous analytical works on Measurements are expressed in mm. *Author for correspondence. E-mail: [email protected] / [email protected]

Received 29 September 2020. Accepted November 2020

ISSN 1021-3589 [Print]; 2224-8854 [Online] African Entomology 29(1): 233–237 (2021) DOI: https://doi.org/10.4001/003.029.0233 ©Entomological Society of Southern Africa 234 African Entomology Vol. 29, No. 1, 2021

EL = Eye length; the maximum diameter of the of Saudi Arabia. CASC– California Academy of eye. Sciences, San Francisco, USA. HL = Head length; the maximum length of the head capsule, measured in full-face view RESULTS in a straight line from the mid-point of the anterior clypeal margin to the mid-point of Key to the Arabian species of the genus the posterior margin. Tapinoma based on the queen caste HW = Head width; the maximum width of the head behind eyes in full-face view. 1. Head in full-face view distinctly longer than ML = Mesosoma length; the length of the meso- broad, about 1.3 times longer than broad; soma in lateral view, from the point at head in full-face view with same broad which the pronotum meets the cervical anteriorly and posteriorly (Fig. 1A) shield to the posterior base of the propo- ...... T. wilsoni deal lobes or teeth. — Head in full-face view as long as or slightly SL = Scape length, excluding basal neck. broader than long; head in full-face dis- TL = Total length; the outstretched length of the tinctly broader posteriorly than anteriorly ant from the mandibular apex to the (Fig. 1B) ...... 2 metasomal apex. 2. Anterior clypeal margin with a deep median notch (Fig. 1B); colour uniformly black- Indices brown or black (Fig. 1C) CI = Cephalic index (HW × 100/HL)...... T. simrothi SI = Scape index (SL × 100/HW). — Anterior clypeal margin straight or shal- Abbreviations of museums lowly concave (Fig. 1D); bicoloured species, KSMS – King Saud University Museum of head and mesosoma brown or black- , College of Food and Agriculture brown, gaster and appendages yellow Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Kingdom ...... T. melanocephalum

Fig. 1. Key illustrations of Tapinoma queens; A, T. wilsoni, head in full-face view, CASENT0264400, (Estella Ortega); B, T. simrothi, head in full-face view, CASENT0263646, (Estella Ortega); C, T. simrothi, body in profile, CASENT0263646, (Estella Ortega); D, T. melanocephalum, head in full-face view, CASENT0767668, (Michele Esposito), AntWeb.org Al-Keridis et al.: Description of the queen of an Arabian endemic dolichoderine species 235

Tapinoma wilsoni Sharaf & Aldawood, 2012, Fig. 2A–C Tapinoma wilsoni Sharaf & Aldawood, 2012: 38, figs 1–3 (w). Saudi Arabia, Afrotropical. Material examined. SAUDI ARABIA: 1 dealated queen, Al Bahah, Dhi Ayn Archaeological Village, 19.92976°N 41.44187°E, 735 m, 23.ix.2011, FAE935, banana field, CASENT0264400, (F.A. Esteves), (CASC); holotype worker, Saudi Arabia, Al Baha, Al Sarawat Mountains, Dhi Ayn Archaeological Village, 19.92972°N 41.44278°E, 741 m, 15.v.2011 (M.R. Sharaf); paratype workers: 29 workers, same locality as holotype; Dhi Ayn Archaeo- logical Village, 19.92972°N 41.44278°E, 728 m, 11.iv.2016 (M.R. Sharaf), MRS0326, 4 w; Dhi Ayn Archaeological Village, 19.92972°N 41.44278°E, 706 m, 11.iv.2016(A. Polaszek), YPT,3 w (KSMA). Measurements (Queen): TL 4.06; HL 0.65; HW 0.52; SL 0.53; EL 0.24; ML 1.45; Indices: CI 80; SI 102 (n = 1). Queen. Head: head in full-face view about 1.3 times longer than broad, with a straight posterior margin and feebly convex lateral sides; anterior clypeal margin straight or feebly concave medial- ly; masticatory margin of mandibles armed with about 12 teeth decreasing gradually in size from apex to base; eyes large (EL 0.46 times HW), with about 18 ommatidia in the longest row, and breaking head outlines in full-face view; ocelli prominent; all funicular segments longer than broad; scape relatively long, when laid back from their insertions surpass posterior margin of head by about one-third of its length. Mesosoma: robust; mesoscutum straight in profile; mesoscutellar disc feebly convex in profile and with posterior margin descending abruptly posteriorly to metanotal groove; propodeal spira- Fig. 2. Queen of Tapinoma wilsoni, CASENT0264400; cle circular; propodeal dorsum meet declivity in a A, body in profile; B, body in dorsal view; C, head in continuous curve in profile. Petiole: a small scale, full-face view, (Estella Ortega), AntWeb.org partially overhung by the first gastral tergite in and scape yellow-brown; funiculus and legs clear profile. Sculpture: all body surface unsculptured and dull. Pilosity: cephalic dorsum, antennae, and yellow. clypeal surface with profuse appressed pubes- Biology and ecology. Tapinoma wilsoni is known cence; anterior clypeal margin and mandibles only from the type locality (Dhi Ayn Archeological with scattered yellow hairs; eyes with numerous village, Al Sarawat Mountains) where a nest series projecting short hairs among ommatidia; meso- was found foraging on moist ground in banana soma, petiole, and gasteral tergites with abun- plantations, and coexisting with the ant species dant appressed pubescence; second and third Carebara arabica (Collingwood & van Harten, 2001), gastral tergite each with two pairs of short hairs; Tetramorium sericeiventre Emery, 1877, Pheidole terminal gastral tergite with several hairs. Colour: minuscula Bernard, 1953, Pheidole sp., Trichomyrmex uniformly brown, antennae, mandibles, clypeus, destructor (Jerdon, 1851), Monomorium exiguum 236 African Entomology Vol. 29, No. 1, 2021

Fig. 3. Dhi Ayn Archaeological Village, type locality of Tapinoma wilsoni. (Photograph by M. Sharaf.)

(Forel, 1894), Monomorium sp. and Crematogaster Oman, the species is broadly distributed in the sp. Dhofar Province (Sharaf et al. unpubl. data) and in Geographic distribution. KSA. the Socotra Archipelago it is frequently encoun- tered in either urban or relatively undisturbed DISCUSSION native sites (Collingwood et al. 2004, Sharaf et al. 2017). Hopefully, future collecting efforts will The genus Tapinoma is represented by three allow constructing diagnostic keys to Arabian ants species in the Arabian Peninsula, T. simrothi, based on males and queens. T. melanocephalum, and T. wilsoni. Tapinoma simrothi is the most widely distributed species in the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS region, with adequate material accumulated from a wide range of geographic sites in the Central The authors thank F. Esteves for collecting the Region (Riyadh Province) of the KSA. These queen of T. wilsoni and B. Fisher and E. Ortega for collections reflect a diverse range of habitat help in photographing the queen. This research types and feeding preferences. This broad geo- was funded by the Deanship of Scientific Research graphic distribution was previously mentioned by at Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University. Collingwood et al. (2011). Tapinoma wilsoni has Riyadh, Saudi Arabiam through the Research been described from the Dhi Ayn Archaeological Funding Program, Grant ID: (FRP-1441-16). Village (Fig. 3) from the southwestern mountains Special thanks to B. Kondratieff for useful com- of the KSA and currently is known only from this ments. area despite extensive collecting efforts. Tapinoma melanocephalum is a successful invasive species, §ORCID iDs currently recorded from all countries on the A.S. Aldawood: orcid.org/0000-0003-0721-6632 Arabian Peninsula but by limited material. In M.R. Sharaf: orcid.org/0000-0001-8137-0705

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