Tapinoma melanocephalum

• Main Author: Collingwood, C. A.
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 1979
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Arthropoda; Insecta; Hymenoptera; Formicidae; Tapinoma; Tapinoma melanocephalum; Fennoscandia
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6283731; https://zenodo.org/record/6283731

Tapinoma melanocephalum (Fabricius, 1793) Formica melanocephala Fabricius, 1793:353. Worker. Distinctively bicoloured, head brown, alitrunk and gaster pale yellowish with variable brown patches; legs and antennae very pale. Prothorax laterally compressed, broadening anteriorly. Length: 1.5-2 mm. Queen. Colour as worker. Alitrunk enlarged. Length: 2.5 mm. Male. Head and dorsum of alitrunk dark, gaster pale with indefinite dark markings, wings and legs very pale. Length: 2.0 mm. Biology. This is frequently introduced in plant material or produce from the tropics and has occasionally become established in heated or domestic premises in the British Isles. It is a very well known and widely distributed house pest in the tropics where it lives by scavenging. : Published as part of Collingwood, C. A., 1979, The Formicidae (Hymenoptera) of Fennoscandia and Denmark., pp. 1-174 in Fauna Entomologica Scandinavica 8 on page 36