{"references": ["Krausse, A. H. 1911. Uber Messor structor Ltr. und einige andere Ameisen auf Sardinien. Bollettino della Societa Entomologica Italiana, 41: 14 - 18.", "Sharaf, M. R. 2006. Taxonomic and ecological studies on family Formicidae (Order: Hymenoptera) in Egypt including some protectorates with a study of some insect fauna associated with ant species [unpublished thesis]. Cairo: Ain Shams University, Faculty of Science, Entomology Department, 340 pp.", "Collingwood, C. A. 1985. Hymenoptera: Fam. Formicidae of Saudi Arabia. Fauna of Saudi Arabia, 7: 230 - 302.", "Collingwood, C. A. and Agosti, D. 1996. Formicidae (Insecta: Hymenoptera) of Saudi Arabia (Part 2). Fauna of Arabia, 15: 300 - 385.", "Collingwood, C. A., Tigar, B. J. and Agosti, D. 1997. Introduced ants in the United Arab Emirates. Journal of Arid Environments, 37: 505 - 512.", "Sharaf, M. R. and A. S. Aldawood. 2011. First occurrence of Solenopsis Westwood 1840 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with description of a new species S. saudiensis n. sp. Annales de la Societe Entomologique de France, 47: 474 - 479.", "Sharaf, M. R., Gotzek, D., Guenard, B., Fisher, B. L., Aldawood, A. S., Al Dhafer, H. M., A. A. Mohamed. 2020 c. Molecular phylogenetic analysis and morphological reassessments of thief ants identify a new potential case of biological invasions. Scientific Reports, 10: 12040, https: // doi. org / 10.1038 / s 41598 - 020 - 69029 - 4."]}

Tapinoma simrothi Krausse, 1911 (Fig. 3 A–C, 4 A–C) Tapinoma erraticum var. simrothi Krausse, 1911: 18 (w.) Italy (Sardinia). Palearctic. Diagnosis. Worker. Anterior clypeal margin with a slit-like median notch; scapes relatively long, when laid back from their insertions surpass posterior margin of head by about one third of scape length; funicular segments at least twice as long as broad; body surfaces covered with dense appressed pubescence; body color uniformly dark brown to black with legs including tarsi uniformly brownish. Material examined. Qatar, Doha, Al-Rayyan, 12.iii.2005, (M.S. Abdel-Dayem leg.), 8w, (KSMA). Geographic distribution. A Palearctic species, distributed across northern and southern Mediterranean Basin (Sharaf 2006) and eastwards to most of Arabian Peninsula (Collingwood 1985, Collingwood and Agosti 1996, Collingwood et al. 1997), Iran and Afghanistan. This material represents the first record for Qatar. Ecological and biological notes. Tapinoma simrothi was observed in Riyadh Province (KSA) nesting among roots of graminae plants, attending unidentified mealybugs under a discarded carpet, and coexisting with Solenopsis abdita Thompson, 1989 (Senior synonym of S. saudiensis Sharaf and Aldawood, 2011 (Sharaf et al. 2020 c)). The species is also known to attend aphids, protecting these insects from predators (Karami-jamour et al. 2018).

Published as part of Sharaf, Mostafa R., Abdel-Dayem, Mahmoud S., Mohamed, Amr A., Fisher, Brian L. & Aldawood, Abdulrahman S., 2020, A Preliminary Synopsis of the Ant Fauna (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Qatar with Remarks on the Zoogeography, pp. 533-560 in Annales Zoologici 70 (4) on page 537, DOI: 10.3161/00034541anz2020.70.4.005, http://zenodo.org/record/4433537