Abstract
The ant genus Trichomyrmex Mayr, 1865 is revised for the Arabian Peninsula based on the worker caste. Nine species are recognized and descriptions of two new species, T. almosayari sp. nov. and T. shakeri sp. nov. from Riyadh Province, Saudi Arabia, are given. For nomenclatural stability, lectotypes for T. abyssinicus (Forel, 1894a), T. lameerei (Forel, 1902) and T. mayri (Forel, 1902) are designated. A key to species and diagnostic characters of the treated species are presented. New country records are presented for T. abyssinicus (Saudi Arabia), T. destructor (Jerdon, 1851) (Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) and T. mayri (Qatar). New distributional records for T. destructor and T. mayri for Saudi Arabia are also provided. World and regional species distributions are indicated and distributional maps for nine Arabian species are included. Ecological and biological information is given when known.
Highlights
The ant genus Trichomyrmex Mayr, 1865 is a small genus in the subfamily Myrmicinae Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau, 1835 which currently includes 21 recognized species and subspecies (Bolton 2014) distributed worldwide
The genus Trichomyrmex was established by Mayr (1865) for the type species T. rogeri Mayr, 1865 by monotypy, but later the genus was treated as a junior synonym of Monomorium (Mayr, 1855) (Ettershank 1966; Bolton 1987)
Among the nine species of the genus Trichomyrmex reported from the Arabian Peninsula, T. mayri and T. destructor are the most abundant ones
Summary
The ant genus Trichomyrmex Mayr, 1865 is a small genus in the subfamily Myrmicinae Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau, 1835 which currently includes 21 recognized species and subspecies (Bolton 2014) distributed worldwide (www.antwiki.org; www.AntWeb.org). The genus Trichomyrmex was established by Mayr (1865) for the type species T. rogeri Mayr, 1865 by monotypy, but later the genus was treated as a junior synonym of Monomorium (Mayr, 1855) (Ettershank 1966; Bolton 1987). This synonymy was accepted for nearly three decades until the milestone work of Ward et al (2015) on the phylogeny of the Myrmicinae. The described species are considered either granivorous (T. abyssinicus, T. chobauti (Emery, 1897) (Bingham 1903)), or are predators or scavengers (T. destructor (Jerdon, 1851), T. mayri (Forel, 1902) (Bolton 1987))
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