Cataglyphis turcomanica Crawley - new status

Iran list

Type location Turkmenistan (Myrmecocystus viaticus, F. subsp. desertorum For. var. turcomanica n. var., Emery, 1898c: 147, worker; name as Cataglyphis bicolor F., var. turcomanica Em. by Crawley, 1920b: 177, name only; as Cataglyphis bicolor F., stirps setipes v. turcomanica Em. in Santschi, 1929b: 49, illustrated; as Cataglyphis turcomanicus( Emery) in Agosti, 1990, 1490) from Merwe and Samarkand, by Sahlberg - no images on Antweb (July 2016)

Emery's (1898c) description is at . Santschi (1929b) provided an illustrated description; this is at .

Crawley (1920b: 177) simply used the name Cataglyphis bicolor F., var. turcomanica Em., reporting the finding of a worker at Tiflis, "North-West Persia", 1919 (Buxton). The name Tiflis seemingly now is regarded as Tibilisi, in Georgia but it seems unlikely that is where Buxton collected. The location possibly was close to modern Bandar-e-Anzali, Iraq, on the Caspian Sea coast, where Buxton collected in March and June 1919(in Crawley, 1920a & b).

Agosti (1990: 1479, 1490) has the setipes complex as known from Morocco and Ghana to Central Asia and the Ganges River but gave the distinguishing character of the group as "thick, bristle-like black pubescence on the hind tibia". That is not present on turcomanica, which has the setae and raised pubescence matching the orange-brown legs.

Radchenko (1998) does not mention it in his key to Asian Cataglyphis.

Oxford University Museum specimens

Cataglyphis turcomanica B Taylor det.

Iran Z Mahmoodi 23

19.x.2015 35.749795°N 51.339501°E 1438 m

Nahjol Balaghe Park pifall trap river valley ? major worker

1

The photomontage is of a worker from Iran, Nahjol Balaghe Park, collector Z Mahmoodi (23).