Palearctic elements in the old world tropics: a taxonomic revision of the ant genus Temnothorax Mayr (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) for the Afrotropical biogeographical region.

ABSTRACT: Four new Afrotropical species of the ant genus Temnothorax are described and illustrated, all from Kenya. Based upon high resemblance to taxa known from the North African and Iberian territories of the Mediterranean region, these new tropical elements are placed into known Palaearctic species complexes. Specifically, Temnothoraxbrevidentis sp. n., Temnothoraxmpala sp. n. and Temnothoraxrufus sp. n. are placed in the laurae species group, and Temnothoraxsolidinodus sp. n. is placed in the angustulus species group. Two already known Temnothorax species from the region, Temnothoraxcenatus (Bolton, 1982) and Temnothoraxmegalops (Hamann & Klemm, 1967), are also placed into the laurae species group based on the high number of shared morphological characters. Diagnoses for the African representat

SUBMITTER: Prebus M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4351446 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature