New and Additional Records for the Ant Fauna (hymenoptera, Formicidae) of Morocco

Morocco hosts a high diversity of animal and plant species, including a diverse ant fauna. Here, we report collection records of four ant species not previously known from Morocco: Goniomma kugleri Espadaler, 1986, Strumigenys rogeri Emery, 1890, Temnothorax longipilosus (Santschi, 1912) and Proceratium numidicum Santschi, 1912. G. kugleri is mentioned for the first time for continental Africa. This raises the number of ant species known from Morocco to 242. In addition, we report new data on six ant species in Morocco for which there is little information: Technomyrmex vexatus (Santschi, 1919), Temnothorax convexus (Forel, 1894), Messor brevispinosus Santschi, 1923, Strumigenys baudueri (Emery, 1875), Strumigenys membranifera Emery, 1869 and Monomorium andrei Saunders, 1890. This number of ant species known from Morocco greatly exceeds from neighboring countries in North Africa. In addition, vast regions of Morocco have never been surveyed and probably host many undiscovered species.