A new ant species of the Leptogenys sulcinoda-group (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Leptogenys polaszeki sp. n. is described from the Asir Mountains, Saudi Arabia, based on the worker caste. The new species is a member of the L. sulcinoda-group and appears closest to L. bellii Emery, 1901, originally described from Ethiopia. The likely male caste of L. polaszeki sp. n. is described based on a single specimen collected by a pitfall trap in the type locality.

http://www.zoobank.org/urn:urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:5D3BF3AF-5308–48E8–8416–902278909AD5

Keywords:

• Ponerinae
• Middle East
• Asir Mountains
• key
• Afrotropical region

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Barry Bolton (Isle of Wight, United Kingdom) and Boris Kondratieff (Colorado State University, Fort Collins, USA) for critical reading of the manuscript. We thank Brian Fisher (California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, USA) for permission to use the images of L. maxillosa. Special thanks to Michele Esposito (California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, USA) for photographing the new species and for continuous support.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors would like to extend their sincere appreciation to the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Saud University for funding this Research group NO (RGP -1436-029).