Cardiocondyla mauritanica

Cardiocondyla mauritanica is found primarily in semi-arid and urban environments. Cardiocondyla mauritanica shows an apparently continuous distribution and geographic variation in morphology from northwest Africa to India suggesting that C. mauritanica is native throughout this subtropical expanse. Old World records of C. mauritanica far from this range come from Ascension, Zimbabwe, and several Indo-Pacific islands. The sole temperate record of C. mauritanica comes from Ukraine. Cardiocondyla mauritanica was first found in the New World in 1967, and has spread through the southwestern US, northern Mexico, Florida, and the West Indies. Part of the success of C. mauritanica in exotic locales may relate to its ability to co-exist with dominant invasive ants, such as the Argentine ant, Linepithema humile. [Wetterer, 2012]

Distribution
This taxon was described from Tunisia. It is also found in the Philippines, Mexico, United States, Dominican Republic, Nepal, Israel, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, India, Algeria, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Malta, Barbados, Canary Islands and Balearic Islands.

Nomenclature

 *  mauritanica. Cardiocondyla nuda var. mauritanica Forel, 1890a: lxxv (w.) TUNISIA. Forel, 1901e: 378 (q.); Forel, 1904c: 6 (ergatoid m.). Subspecies of nuda: Forel, 1901e: 378. Raised to species: Ortiz & Tinaut, 1987: 32. Senior synonym of nitida: Bernard, 1956c: 305; of ectopia: Seifert, 2003: 248; of caparica: Henin, Collingwood & Paiva, 2003: 377.
 * nitida. Cardiocondyla emeryi subsp. nitida Bernard, 1948: 142 (w.) ALGERIA. Junior synonym of mauritanica: Bernard, 1956c: 305.
 * ectopia. Cardiocondyla ectopia Snelling, R.R. 1974: 76, figs. 1-5 (w.q. ergatoid m.) U.S.A. Junior synonym of mauritanica: Seifert, 2003a: 248.
 * caparica. Leptothorax caparica Henin, Paiva & Collingwood, 2001: 163, figs. 1, 2 (w.) PORTUGAL. Junior synonym of mauritanica: Henin, Collingwood & Paiva, 2003: 377.

Additional References

 * Wetterer, J.K. 2012. Worldwide Spread of the Moorish sneaking Ant, Cardiocondyla mauritanica (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Sociobiology 59, 985-997.