Tapinoma melanocephalum

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