Brachyponera sennaarensis

Widely distributed throughout sub-Saharan Africa, where it inhabits savannas and open forests; it is also the most common member of the subfamily in southern Arabia. While it is regarded as native at least throughout Africa, it is also notably preferring man-impacted habitats, such as human settlements, rubbish dumps and waste ground. Thus it is in question whether the species is indigenous to the Socotra Archipelago. It is a general scavenger but will attack other insects and has a painful sting. Allergic reactions to the sting, sometimes severe, are a problem locally in Arabia (DIB 1992, RrzK et al. 1998), where it is called the "Samsun ant". Probably because of awareness of the painful sting, Socotri people refer to this ant by a specific denomination ("diftim"), as different to the word for ant ("nimihil"). (Collingwood et al. 2004)

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Afrotropical Region: Burkina Faso, Chad, Eritrea, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mali, Namibia, Niger, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Oriental Region: India. Palaearctic Region: Bahrain, Iran, Qatar.

Biology
This appears to be the only ponerine ant that can feed on seeds. Diet varies seasonally and geographically: in humid tropical regions of Africa, both seeds and insect prey are collected during the rainy season, whereas diet consists exclusively of seeds during the rainy season that lasts three months (Dejean & Lachaud 1994). In dry tropical regions however, foragers react to the absence of seeds in the rainy season by adopting a 100% animal diet (Lévieux 1979)

Nomenclature

 *  sennaarensis. Ponera sennaarensis Mayr, 1862: 721 (w.) SUDAN. Santschi, 1910c: 350 (q.); Forel, 1910c: 245 (m.); Wheeler, G.C. & Wheeler, J. 1971b: 1207 (l.). Combination in Euponera (Brachyponera): Emery, 1901a: 47; in Brachyponera: Wheeler, G.C. & Wheeler, J. 1971b: 1207; in Pachycondyla: Brown, in Bolton, 1995b: 309; in Brachyponera: Schmidt & Shattuck, 2014: 81. Senior synonym of sorghi: Wheeler, W.M. 1922a: 777; Menozzi, 1930b: 80. Current subspecies: nominal plus decolor, ruginota. See also: Arnold, 1915: 73.
 * sorghi. Ponera sorghi Roger, 1863a: 169 (w.) SUDAN. Combination in Euponera (Brachyponera): Emery, 1911d: 84. Junior synonym of sennaarensis: Wheeler, W.M. 1922a: 777.