Palearctic elements in the old world tropics: a taxonomic revision of the ant genus Temnothorax Mayr (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) for the Afrotropical biogeographical region

Abstract. Four new Afrotropical species of the ant genus Temnothorax are described and illustrated, all from Kenya. Based upon high resemblance to taxa known from the North African and Iberian territories of the Mediterranean region, these new tropical elements are placed into known Palaearctic species complexes. Specifically, Temnothorax brevidentis sp. n., Temnothorax mpala sp. n. and Temnothorax rufus sp. n. are placed in the laurae species group, and Temnothorax solidinodus sp. n. is placed in the angustulus species group. Two already known Temnothorax species from the region, Temnothorax cenatus (Bolton, 1982) and Temnothorax megalops (Hamann & Klemm, 1967), are also placed into the laurae species group based on the high number of shared morphological characters. Diagnoses for the African representatives of laurae and angustulus species groups of the Afrotropical biogeographical region are provided. A key to workers of the six Temnothorax species known to occur in the Afrotropical biogeographical region is provided, as well as diagnoses of morphologically similar myrmicine genera.