Cataglyphis bombycinus

bombycinus group Diagnosis Workers and females: Cataglyphis ants with the following diagnostic characters: 1. Petiole squamiform, the anterior and the posterior surface laterally confluent. 2. MPI 5 mm) dimorphic workers with a soldier caste with falcate mandibles (Fig. 5) and workers with always six or more teeth on the mandible. The worker castes are characterized by an astonishingly high variation in coloration and the whole bombycinus complex nevertheless may consist of only two species; bombycinus with workers with a thick, silvery pubescence on the gaster and lucasi with a sparse pubescence with hairs shorter than the distance between them. Distribution: deserts of North Africa and Sinai. (ii) sabulosus complex: diagnosed by the truncated lateral appendices of the subgential plate, a large, simple, median appendix of the stipes of about half the length of the stipes and smaller, monomorphic, workers (AL