Cardiocondyla minutior Forel 1899

Cardiocondyla minutior Forel, 1899 (Figure 20) Cardiocondyla nuda var. minutior, 1899, p. 120 (w.) Hawaii (Oahu I.). Oceania. Diagnosis Worker. Head, mesosoma, petiole, and postpetiole varying from dirty yellow to dark dirty brown, gaster brown to black-brown; eyes small, with distinct microsetae; mesosomal outline in profile nearly straight or feebly convex; metanotal groove weakly impressed or entirely absent; propodeal spines short and acute; petiolar node in dorsal view circular and as long as broad; postpetiole low, with completely flat sternite and without anteroventral bulge. Material examined One site: 21. Geographic range. This pantropical tramp species originally described from Hawaii (Forel 1899), is native to the Oriental region (Seifert 2003). It is widespread in all zoogeographical regions but with a huge range of distribution, over the Neotropical, the Polynesian, the Australasian, the Indo-Australasian, and the Oriental regions (Seifert 2003, 2023; Wetterer 2014), without reports in greenhouses of the temperate zone (Seifert 2022). This species was recently found in the KSA (Sharaf et al. 2023). Ecology and biology. This species has diverse nesting and foraging habits (Sharaf et al. 2017). In the Socotra Archipelago, workers are frequently encountered in leaf litter and humid organic-rich soil under date palm trees, whereas some samples were found foraging on a mountainside, next to Adiantum capillus-veneris L. (Pteridaceae). Some workers were found coexisting with Brachyponera punctatissima (Roger, 1859) in the moist basal leaves of a date palm tree trunk. Nests are frequently built in open wet areas of lawns, grass tussocks, pastures, and paved localities (Seifert 2003; Deyrup 2017). The species produces both ergatoid and alate males (Seifert 2003). For more details on habitat and biology see Sharaf et al. (2017).