ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

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Trichomyrmex perplexus is a species of small ants of the genus, formerly known as ants.

Spreading
Eurasia (Armenia, Greece, Jordan, Cyprus, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates).

Description
The length of brownish ants (the abdomen is darker) from 2 to 5 mm. The promezonotum in profile is flat. The back is equal to the length of the slope in profile. The sides of the propodeum, petiole and post petiole are small-point mesh. The head is smooth and shiny, at rare thin points; the mandibles are longitudinally wrinkled; the promesonotum and mesonotum are smooth and shiny, the rest of the mesosome is densely mesh. The anterior edge of the clipeus with a pair of well-developed strong teeth that hang over the gums, these teeth are widely divided by a distance exceeding the maximum width of the frontal lobes. Head, mesosome, petiole and postpetiole from orange-red to reddish-brown, abdomen dark brown, legs brownish or reddish-yellow. The antennae are 12-piece, the mace consists of 4 segments. The lower maxillary palpitations are 2-particular, lower lip palpitations consist of 2 segments. The head, breast and abdomen are smooth and shiny. The propodeum is round, without spines or teeth on the posterior breast. The stem between the chest and abdomen consists of two segments: petiolus and postpetiolus (the latter is clearly separated from the abdomen), the sting is developed.

Grain-eating species. It prefers open and arid habitats, including pastures, shores of artificial lakes, a sea coast with garigas (raregible thickets of short evergreen xerophytic shrubs), abandoned gardens, but is also found in limestone gorges with plane trees, open pine forests and open oak forests. Nests are built right in the ground and under stones. Lowland species, the highest location in Greece, was recorded at an altitude of about 570 m above sea level.

Systematics
The species Trichomyrmex perplexus was first described in 1997 from materials from Armenia under its original name. In 2014, the taxon was transferred to the genus.

Notes

Literature

References

Trichomyrmex
Animals described in 1894
Asia's Insects