List of ants of Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is a tropical island situated close to the southern tip of India. The invertebrate fauna is as large as it is common to other regions of the world. There are about 2 million species of arthropods found in the world, and still it is counting. So many new species are discover up to this time also. So it is very complicated and difficult to summarize the exact number of species found within a certain region.

This a list of the ants of Sri Lanka.

Ants

Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera

Family: Formicidae

Ants are social insects that can be found in terrestrial ecosystems. They are also very common in human settlements, as well as in forest floor. Well over 6000 species of ants were found and described, and new species are about to discover. Sri Lanka is home to 210 species of ants that included to 63 genera and 10 subfamilies. There are 102 endemic species in Sri Lanka, with 48.6% of endemism. One endemic genus Aneuretus is also included to the list.

Subfamily: Amblyoponinae

Subfamily: Aneuretinae

Aneuretus simoni - A endemic ant species of Sri Lanka

Subfamily: Dolichoderinae

Technomyrmex albipes - Known as "Kalu kumbiya" in Sri Lanka

Subfamily: Dorylinae

Subfamily: Ectatomminae

Subfamily: Formicinae

Anoplolepis gracilipes - Known as "Ambalaya" in Sri Lanka, is a troublesome species in houses
Oecophylla smaragdina - A common ant species in Sri Lanka, commonly known as "Dimiya"

Subfamily: Myrmecinae

Subfamily: Ponerinae

Subfamily: Pseudomyrmecinae

Subfamily: Leptanillinae


The following species were also described from Sri Lanka, but their true identities are currently unknown due to lack of experiments.

References

See also

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, February 08, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.