Messor obscurior Crawley

Iran list Type location Iraq (Messor barbarus race semirufus E. André var. obscurior var. nov. Crawley, 1920a: 164; workers; Bolton, 1955: 256, has "unavailable name: material referred to semirufus by Baroni Urbani, 1974: 227) Amara, 1918, Buxton; Baghdad, 1981, Evans. - no images on Antweb (August 2015).

Crawley's (1920a) description is at . 

Crawley gave major TL 7.5-8.0, minor TL 3.5 mm.  Dark brown, some almost black, uniform except for lighter appendages; sculpture on head and alitrunk coarser than semirufus. Baroni Urbani noted he based his synonymy on the original description and had not seen the type specimens. Equally, he had not seen the type of semirufus as that appears to have been lost. The workers below can be compared to a cotype of Messor semirufus.

The photomontage of a major worker from the type collection is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimenImages.do?name=casent0907731.

The photomontage of a media worker from the type collection is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimenImages.do?name=casent09077328.

Oxford University Museum specimens

Messor obscurior B Taylor det.	Iran M Safariyan 24	5.ii.2014 35.78872°N 47.03828°E	Saral field 1800 m pitfall trap road side	1
Messor obscurior B Taylor det.	Iran G Abolfathi 35	26.vii.2013 33.894199°N 48.767033°E 1562 m	Fial, Borujerd hand collected village major worker	2
Messor obscurior B Taylor det.	Iran F Heidary 10	5.ii.2013 27.27°N 52.29°E 401 m	Torman hand collected near farm; on soil major & minor workers	3

The photomontage is of a major worker from Iran, Fial, Borujerd collector Giti Abolfathi (35).

The photomontage is of a media worker from Iran,  collector E Aram (26).

The photomontage is of a minor worker from Iran,  collector E Aram (26). TL ca 3.5 mm, matches the Crawley size.

The photomontage is a colour corrected (lowering of magenta tint) version of the type major (shown above).