Messor maculifrons

AntWiki: The Ants --- Online
Messor maculifrons
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Myrmicinae
Tribe: Stenammini
Genus: Messor
Species group: instabilis
Species complex: semirufus
Species: M. maculifrons
Binomial name
Messor maculifrons
Santschi, 1927

Identification

Distribution

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: 41.716667° to 29.883333°.

   
North
Temperate
North
Subtropical
Tropical South
Subtropical
South
Temperate

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Palaearctic Region: Egypt, Israel, Syria (type locality).

Distribution based on AntMaps

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Distribution based on AntWeb specimens

Check data from AntWeb

Countries Occupied

Number of countries occupied by this species based on AntWiki Regional Taxon Lists. In general, fewer countries occupied indicates a narrower range, while more countries indicates a more widespread species.
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Estimated Abundance

Relative abundance based on number of AntMaps records per species (this species within the purple bar). Fewer records (to the left) indicates a less abundant/encountered species while more records (to the right) indicates more abundant/encountered species.
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Biology

Castes

Nomenclature

The following information is derived from Barry Bolton's Online Catalogue of the Ants of the World.

  • maculifrons. Messor semirufus var. maculifrons Santschi, 1927c: 228.
    • Type-material: 21 syntype workers.
    • Type-localities: 20 workers Turkey (“Syria”): Alexandretta (= Hatay Prov., Iskenderun) (Geade), 1 worker Caucasus (no further data) (Karawayew).
    • Type-depository: NHMB.
    • [First available use of Messor barbarus st. semirufus var. maculifrons Santschi, 1917e: 91 (w.) TURKEY, CAUCASUS; unavailable (infrasubspecific) name.]
    • [Note: the Caucasus locality is probably Georgia (Tbilisi), as recorded in Santschi, 1927c: 228.]
    • As unavailable (infrasubspecific) name: Emery, 1921f: 72; Emery, 1922c: 97.
    • Subspecies of semirufus: Finzi, 1936: 159.
    • Junior synonym of semirufus: Baroni Urbani, 1974: 227.
    • Status as species: Tohmé, G. & Tohmé, H. 1981: 143; Bolton, 1995b: 255; Vonshak, et al. 2009: 42; Borowiec, L. 2014: 108; Tohmé, G. & Tohmé, 2014: 134.
    • Distribution: Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey.

Description

References

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

  • Borowiec L. 2014. Catalogue of ants of Europe, the Mediterranean Basin and adjacent regions (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Genus (Wroclaw) 25(1-2): 1-340.
  • Finzi, B.. "Risultati scientifici della spedizione di S. A. S. il Principe Alessandro della Torre e Tasso nell'Egitto e peninsola del Sinai. XI. Formiche." Bulletin de la Société Entomologique d'Egypte 20 (1936): 155-210.
  • Santschi, F.. "Races et variétés nouvelles du Messor barbarus L." Bulletin de la Société d' Histoire naturelle de l' Afrique du Nord 8 (1917): 89-94.
  • Santschi, F.. "Revision des Messor du groupe instabilis Sm. (Hymenopt.)." Boletín de la Real Sociedad española de Historia natural (Madrid) 27 (1927): 225-250.
  • Tohme G. 1996. Formicidae. Etude de la diversité biologique n° 4 . Ministère de l’Agriculture à Beyrouth (Eds.). P85-87.
  • Tohme G., and H. Tohme. 2014. Nouvelles liste des especes de fourmis du Liban (Hymenoptera, Formicoidea). Lebanese Science Journal 15(1): 133-141.
  • Tohmé, G., and H. Tohmé. "Les fourmis du genre Messor en Syrie. Position systématique. Description de quelques ailés et de formes nouvelles. Répartition géographique." Ecologia Mediterranea 7 (1) (1981): 139-153, fig. 1-22.
  • Vonshak M., and A. Ionescu-Hirsch. 2009. A checklist of the ants of Israel (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Israel Journal of Entomology 39: 33-55.