Cataglyphis niger (André)

Type location Israel (Myrmecocystus viaticus var niger, André, 1881b: 56, worker - illustrated (not seen) but may have been of the viaticus type; Forel, 1913d: 434, queen; raised to species Collingwood, 1985: 290) ; unavailable name pharao (as bicolor st nigra var pharao, Santschi, 1929b: 51, worker) from Egypt; worker and queen only known .

André (1881b, illustration unavailable) simply noted that examples of Myrmecocystus viatica from Beyrouth (Beirut, Lebanon) and Alexandria (Egypt) had the body colour dull matt red, with the gaster black, quite shiny; others from Jaffa (Israel) were entirely black with the gaster matt as with the rest of the body, the TL was between 5.0 and 12 mm. This he named as the variety niger.

Santschi's (1929b) description is at . Santschi's (1929b) description of pharao is at . Collingwood & Agosti (1996) gave the note on .

Egypt records - illustrated by Savigny (Audouin, J.-V. 1825-27: Plate 20 Fig 4). Wheeler & Mann (1916) from Cairo, and Lake Fayum (by Wm. Granger); Finzi (1936: 193) cited Menozzi (1929: 128) Wadi Scheich and Wueste Kaa (Sinai); also in Mohamed et al (2001) & El-Moursy et al (2001).

Collingwood (1985) had - petiole a thick rounded node about as high as long, first funiculus segment length nearly 2 X second; TL up to 12 mm; colour mainly black. In Saudi Arabia it was the most conspicuous and probably largest of the Cataglyphis species, big workers with HW up to 3 mm and TL 12.5. Abundant in the Middle East and also from Tunisia. The photomontage of specimens from Sudan, which appear to be closer to the original description (overall matt appearance), is collated from the images at http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0010989

Egypt records - pharao specimens described by Santschi (1929b) were from the coastal desert at Suez (Reichensperger); also noted as from Palestine and all over Egypt by Mohamed et al. (2001). From the present specimens, their note of the third maxillary palp lacking long curved hairs seems incorrect.

The photomontage is of specimens collected in the Sinai Desert, Egypt, St Katherine protectorate around the town of St Katherine, in mountains above 1500m, in early 2001, by Mike James, a research student of Francis Gilbert. They appear to be much shinier than the type specimens shown above.

Other images can be seen in the folder at -