Tetramorium caldarium Sharaf and Aldawood 2011

Tetramorium caldarium (Roger, 1857) (Figure 37) Tetrogmus caldarius Roger, 1857, p. 12 (w.q.) Poland. Palaearctic. Diagnosis Worker. The species most closely resembles T. simillimum but can be distinguished by the following characters: uniform yellow-brown, gaster usually darker than head, and mesosoma; frontal carinae extend posteriorly to level of midlength of eyes behind which they become feeble or broken, or gradually fade out at posterior margin of head; cephalic surface with shallow ground sculpture; head behind the eyes does not broaden. Material examined One site: 13. Geographic range. Tetramorium caldarium is an Afrotropical native that has spread to all zoogeographical realms (Bolton 1980; Wetterer and Hita Garcia 2015). On the Arabian Peninsula it has been collected from the KSA (Collingwood 1985), Oman, Yemen (Collingwood and Agosti 1996; Sharaf et al. 2018a) and the UAE (Wetterer and Hita Garcia 2015). Ecology and biology. This species is generally found in open disturbed areas (Collingwood 1979; Bolton 1980; Wetterer 2015), usually near buildings, in or near paved areas, in hollow twigs (Deyrup 2017) and heat houses (Deyrup et al. 2000; Espadaler 2007), in the leaf litter of irrigated public parks (Sharaf et al. 2018) and in regions with high anthropogenic activity (Bharti and Kumar 2012). Nests are built directly in the earth under rocks where the soil is dry and loose and it was found in an area cultivated with rose (Sharaf et al. 2018b) and mango (Mangifera indica) (Anacardiaceae) (Taylor et al. 2018). Diet includes dead insects and cookie crumbs (Deyrup 2017).