Messor medioruber (Forel)

Iran list Type location Tunisia (Stenamma (Messor) barbarum r capitatum var mediorubra, Forel, 1905b: 176, worker & queen; Messor barbarus L. stirps mediorubra Forel, Santschi, 1910a: 44, all forms, raised to species Cagniant, 1968a: 143 [name in list])
subspecies
maurus (Messor sublaeviceps var maurus, Santschi, 1927c: 244, worker & queen; also Santschi, 1936c: 200) from Tunisia
montanus (Messor sublaeviceps var montanus, Santschi, 1927c: 242, worker) from Algeria
postquadratus (Messor sublaeviceps st postquadratus, Santschi, 1932f: 516, worker)
sublaeviceps (Messor barbarus stirps meridionalis var sublaeviceps, Santschi, 1910a: 45; Messor sublaeviceps Santschi, 1927c: 241, worker & queen; ssp status Cagniant, 1970a: 416) from Tunisia.

Forel's (1905b) description simply states (my translation) - "identical to aegyptiaca Em. but "submutique", seemingly with angular tubercles rather than edentate. Differs from minor in having a brown head. Much smaller than meridionalis. - TL 3 to 6 mm. Queen - TL 10 mm, entirely black". Santschi's (1910a) description is at Santschi's (1927c) description of sublaeviceps is at Santschi's (1927c) descriptions of montanus and maura is at .

Egypt record - reported by Viehmeyer (1923: 87) as collected from the Arabian Desert near Cairo, by F Werner, 4.ii.1914

The photomontage of a worker from Tunisia, as in the Santschi (1927c) records for laeviceps is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0249827

The photomontage is of a specimen from Egypt, taken by Mostafa Sharaf. This clearly differs from the type form and has the red colour and minute propodeal spines referred to by Santschi (1927c).