Tetramorium chefketi

At Rawdhat Khorim, Saudia Arabia, this species is relatively common and observed foraging on Ziziphus nummularia (Burm. f) Wight & Arn. (Rhamnaceae). The species has two abundance peaks, in June and November. It was collected using pitfall traps and beating vegetation (Sharaf et al., 2013).

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Afrotropical Region: Saudi Arabia. Palaearctic Region: Armenia, Bulgaria, China, Greece, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey.

This species was recorded from Saudi Arabia (Collingwood, 1985), Oman and Yemen (Collingwood and Agosti, 1996). Outside Arabia, it has been reported from several parts of the Palaearctic region including southern Europe (Greece, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Romania), southern Ukraine, south of western Russia, northwestern Caucasus, Turkey, Turkmenistan, northern Kazakhstan, southeastern Siberia, to the east to Kyrgyzstan and Altai Mountains (Csõsz et al., 2007) (Sharaf et al., 2013).

Nomenclature

 *  chefketi. Tetramorium caespitum var. chefketi Forel, 1911d: 332 (w.) TURKEY. Raised to species: Agosti & Collingwood, 1987a: 56. Senior synonym of taurocaucasicum: Güsten, Schulz & Sanetra, 2006: 16; of sarkissiani, turcomanicum: Csösz, Radchenko & Schulz, 2007: 18.
 * sarkissiani. Tetramorium caespitum var. sarkissiani Forel, 1911d: 332 (w.) TURKEY. Subspecies of ferox: Menozzi, 1934: 163. Junior synonym of chefketi: Csösz, Radchenko & Schulz, 2007: 18.
 * turcomanicum. Tetramorium caespitum st. turcomanicum Santschi, 1921a: 111 (w.q.) KAZAKHSTAN. [First available use of Tetramorium caespitum subsp. caespitum var. turcomanica Emery, 1909d: 702; unavailable name.] Raised to species: Tarbinsky, 1976: 109. Junior synonym of chefketi: Csösz, Radchenko & Schulz, 2007: 18.
 * taurocaucasicum. Tetramorium taurocaucasicum Arnol'di, 1968: 1813, fig. 12 (w.q.m.) UKRAINE. Junior synonym of forte: Radchenko, 1992b: 51; Atanassov & Dlussky, 1992: 152; of chefketi: Güsten, Schulz & Sanetra, 2006: 16.