Strumigenys membranifera Emery, 1869

(Fig. 23 A–C)

Strumigenys (Trichoscapa) membranifera Emery, 1869: 24, fig. 11 (w.) Italy. Palearctic.

Diagnosis. Worker. Dull yellow to yellow-brown; masticatory margin of mandibles armed with 12 teeth; anterior clypeal margin broadly and weakly convex; eyes minute, with few ommatidia, located at ventral margin of antennal scrobes; metanotal groove absent; spongiform appendages of petiole and postpetiole massively developed; cephalic surfaces reticulate-punctate; sides of mesosoma smooth; propodeal dorsum and declivity smooth; cephalic pilosity restricted to one pair of hairs situated at highest point of vertex; cephalic dorsum with sparse, minute, appressed pubescence; lateral margins of head, clypeus with its anterior and lateral margins, and humeral pronotal angles all without projecting hairs; dorsal surfaces of petiole, postpetiole, and gaster bare.

Material examined. Qatar, Rawdat Al Faras, Qatar University Farm for Training and Research, 25°48’N, 51°20.4’E, 21.v.2015 (M. R. Sharaf leg.), 1w ; Saudi Arabia, Qassim, Buraydah, 26.36°N, 44.03°E, 653 m a.s.l., 19.x.2013 (S. Salman leg.), (2 workers CASENT0914337, CASENT0914338) .

Geographic distribution. A successful, broadly spread, pantropical tramp species originally described from Italy, introduced into most zoogeographical regions worldwide by human commerce (Bolton 1983, Bolton 2000, Wetterer 2011). In the Arabian Peninsula, the species is known from KSA, UAE (Sharaf et al. 2014), and Qatar (Sharaf et al. 2015).

Ecological and biological notes. Strumigenys membranifera seems to prefer habitats with some degree of ecological disturbance (Wetterer 2011, Tang et al. 2019) where nests are built in the dry or semidry soil of lawn and pastures (Wilson and Hunt 1967, Deyrup 1997, OrdÓÑez-Urbano et al. 2008) and in the soil of date palm plantations (Sharaf et al. 2015).