Messor ebeninus Santschi, 1927

Fig. 34

Messor semirufus var. ebeninus Santschi, 1927: 229 (w) Lebanon. Palearctic.

Diagnosis

Uniform black, posterior margin of head with 1–5 setae at each side; propodeum broadly angulate; propodeum with 1–2 pairs of setae, one pair on each petiole and postpetiole; several pairs over gastral tergite.

Material examined

OMAN – Dhofar • 6 w; Dhalkout Road, Aghbaroot Village; 16.798° N, 53.554° E; alt. 1034 m; 18 Nov. 2017; HP; M.R. Sharaf leg.; KSMA • 1 w; Dhalkout; 16.707° N, 53.251° E; alt. 34 m; 19 Nov. 2017; HP; M.R. Sharaf leg.; KSMA .

Ecological and biological notes

Workers of this species can be found abundantly in most valleys of the Arabian Peninsula, nesting in ground under stones, and foraging in high numbers on ground and feeding on various plant seeds (Collingwood 1985).

Geographic range

Messor ebeninus was originally described from Lebanon and has been recorded from several Palearctic countries, including Oman, KSA, Kuwait, UAE, Yemen (Collingwood 1985; Collingwood & Agosti 1996; Collingwood et al. 2011), Egypt (Sharaf 2006), Israel (Vonshak & Ionescu-Hirsch 2009), Iran (Paknia et al. 2008), and Turkey (Kiran & Karaman 2012). This species is reported here for the first time in Dhofar.