Cataglyphis urens, Collingwood, 1985

Agosti, Donat, 1990, Review and reclassification of Cataglyphis (Hymenoptera, Formicidae), Journal of Natural History 24, pp. 1457-1505 : 1475-1476

urens group

Diagnosis

Workers and females: Cataglyphis ants with the following diagnostic characters:

1. Petiole nodiform (Fig. 9).

2. MPI> 100; third segment compressed in cross-section.

3. Bicoloured with a red head and alitrunk and a black gaster, matt.

4. Propodeum raised, PI> 300 (Fig. 12).

5. Alitrunk length of large workers <5-5 mm.

Males: Cataglyphis ants with the following diagnostic characters:

1. Uniform black or with a reddish or yellowish apex of the gaster.

2. Subgenital plate short (SPI <125); with two distal, lateral rounded processes pointing laterally and a median part which is bipartite (Fig. 18).

3. Stipes with a median appendix with a modified topology; the longest diameter never longer than half the length of the stipes (Fig. 33).

4. Volsella curved, distally truncated (Fig. 53).

5. Sagitta without an apicomedian appendix which is overlapping the outline of the sagitta, seen in lateral view; serrated face curved with the denticles anterior of the turning-point (Fig. 68).

Distribution

The urens species-group is distributed in Oman and southern Saudi Arabia in sandy deserts ( Collingwood, 1985).

Comments

The urens complex is monotypic and is the sister-group of all bombycinus group + albicans group+ nigripes group. C.urens lives in the plain sandy deserts ( Collingwood, 1985), in this it differs from all the other bicoloured species of the bicolor group. The very strongly raised propodeum is also found in a yet undescribed black species from Saudi Arabia (BMNH, CCAC) of which the males are unknown.