Tetramorium bicarinatum

Tetramorium bicarinatum (Nylander, 1846) (Figure 35) Myrmica bicarinata Nylander, 1846, p. 1061 (in text) (w.q.) USA (California). Nearctic. Diagnosis Worker. Head, mesosoma, and waist segments yellow to orange-brown, gaster always darker, dark brown to black; anterior clypeal margin with median impression; mandibles distinctly longitudinally striated; mesosoma, petiole and postpetiole strongly reticulaterugulose; scapes when laid back from their insertions fail to reach posterior margin of head; metanotal groove feebly impressed or indistinct; propodeal spines relatively long and acute; body surface with abundant scattered long setae. Material examined One site: 12. Geographic range. A successful cosmopolitan species widely distributed in tropical and subtropical habitats of all zoogeographical regions (Bolton 1980; Hita Garcia and Fisher 2011) and with unknown native origin, supposedly Afrotropical (Creighton 1950; Brown 1957; Taylor and Wilson 1961; Wilson and Taylor 1967) or Oriental (Deyrup et al. 2000; Astruc et al. 2001). On the Arabian Peninsula, it was reported from Yemen (Collingwood and van Harten 2005), the KSA (Sharaf et al. 1012), and the UAE (Collingwood et al. 1997, 2011). Ecology and biology. Nests are built directly in the earth, under bark, under stones and logs (Sharaf 2006), in dead wood or hollow stems, or under loose bark (Deyrup et al. 2000); it is frequently encountered in heated greenhouses (Collingwood 1979), and feeds on living or dead insects as well as honeydew of sap-sucking Homoptera (Deyrup 2017).