Paratrechina longicornis (Latreille, 1802)

(Fig. 13 A–C)

Formica longicornis Latreille, 1802: 113 (w.) Senegal. Afrotropic.

Diagnosis. Worker. Head, mesosoma, petiole, and gaster dark brown to black-brown; body with faint bluish iridescence; antennae long with 12 segments; scapes exceptionally long, when laid back from their insertions surpassing posterior margin of head by at least one-half its length; eyes close to posterior margin of head; legs exceptionally long; pilosity characteristically long, stout, scattered, suberect to erect, greyish or whitish setae.

Material examined. Qatar, Doha, 25°17.124’N, 51°31.86’E, 08.iii.2005, 34w; Al-Dohuil, 15.iii.2005, 25°22’N, 51°29’E, (M.S. Abdel-Dayem leg.), 5w; AlRayyan, 07.iii.2005; 25°18’N, 51°25’E, (M.S. Abdel-Dayem leg.), 37w ; Al-Rayyan, 8.iii.2005, 25°18’N, 51°25’E, (M.S. Abdel-Dayem leg.), 3w, (KSMA) .

Geographic distribution. A successful tramp species originally described from Senegal and widely spread throughout the tropical and subtropical regions worldwide (Wetterer 2008). In the Arabian Peninsula it was reported from Qatar (Wetterer 2008), the KSA, Oman, Yemen (Collingwood 1985, Collingwood and Agosti 1996, Sharaf et al. 2018), and UAE (Collingwood et al. 1997). It is also collected from Egypt (Sharaf 2006) and Israel (Vonshak and Ionescu 2009).

Ecological and biological notes. The nesting preference includes both disturbed and wild sites (Sharaf et al. 2017). In Socotra Archipelago Sharaf et al. (2017) collected it from dry leaf litter in the wild sites. It is a generalized scavenger and also known to attend honeydew-producing Homoptera (Wetterer et al. 1999).