An updated checklist of Nepalese ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

Abstract

The location of Nepal in the Central Himalaya promotes high habitat and species diversity. Ant diversity is likely high, but there have been few studies of the diversity and distribution of ants in Nepal. Here we present an updated checklist list of Nepalese ants that includes 128 named species in 48 genera and eight subfamilies. Among these species, 21 species have a type locality from Nepal, nine species are endemic to Nepal, and three are introduced species. We add six new ant records for Nepal, namely Harpegnathos venator, Monomorium pharaonis, Nylanderia bourbonica, Odontoponera denticulata, Polyrhachis tyrannica and Pseudoneoponera bispinosa. The checklist presents distribution records for Nepalese ant species and provides comparisons with the neighboring countries of China and India.

New record of the Ponerine ant Buniapone amblyops (Emery, 1887) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from Nepal

“…There has been very little research on Nepalese ants to date. Ponerine ants are currently represented by ten genera and 14 named species in Nepal (Subedi et al 2020(Subedi et al , 2021Adhikari et al 2020). This paper reports B. amblyops from Nepal for the first time and discusses morphological characters of worker, distribution, and ecology.…”

Ants of the genus Leptogenys Roger, 1861 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae, Ponerinae) from Nepal

“…Only one valid species Leptogenys diminuta has been reported from Nepal. Leptogenys sarasinorum (or L. diminuta sarasinorum) previously reported from Nepal (Collingwood, 1970;Thapa, 2015;Subedi et al, 2020) is currently considered to be a junior synonym of L. diminuta (Xu & He, 2015;Bolton, 2021). Our knowledge on the genus Leptogenys in Nepal is incomplete and recent ant surveys identified some species new to Nepal.…”

Diversity and Distribution of Forest Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Nepal: Implications for Sustainable Forest Management

“…Nepal has been home to eight subfamilies, 48 genera, and 133 species of ants [17,18]. Considering the unique geographical and ecological diversity, many ant species are yet to be discovered, and their ecology (diversity and distribution) is yet to be studied in the country.…”

“…There have previously been no publications based on a focused systematic survey of Nepalese ants. Collingwood [20] published the first Nepalese ant list, which included 34 species, while Subedi et al [17] published the recent updated checklist, which included 128 species. Twenty-one ant species have Nepal as type locality, and nine of them are endemic to the country [17].…”

“…Collingwood [20] published the first Nepalese ant list, which included 34 species, while Subedi et al [17] published the recent updated checklist, which included 128 species. Twenty-one ant species have Nepal as type locality, and nine of them are endemic to the country [17]. The majority of the current information about Nepalese ants is based on hand-collected specimens.…”