Myrmica serica

In Taiwan this species lives in forests at about 2000 m. Here M. serica builds nests in open clearings, under stones, in and under pieces of wood and in tree stumps in a way reminiscent of Myrmica ruginodis or Myrmica rubra in European woodland. Nests were moderately sized though one or two could have contained as many as a 1000 workers, some nests were polygynous but at most only 2-3 queens per nest were observed. These ants were not particularly aggressive but we were stung several times and the sting seemed no more or less painful than that of any other similarly sized Myrmica species. A nuptial flight occurred in early August, it seemed that mating took place high above the trees, rather like a M. rubra swarm. In Vietnam Katsujuki Eguchi (pers. com.) found them at an altitude of between 1800 and 2200 m living in similar conditions to that observed in Taiwan. In Shaanxi province of China they live at somewhat lower altitudes (c. 1200 m) which probably reflected the cooler climate further north. (Radchenko and Elmes 2010)

Identification
Radchenko and Elmes (2010) - A member of the ritae complex of the ritae species group. The sculpture of the head dorsum of the workers is not very coarse, the frons between frontal carinae level with the eyes having at least six sinuous rugae, which discriminates it the sympatric Myrmica pulchella and Myrmica sinensis that have only four very coarse rugae on the frons; Myrmica pararitae has almost straight, not sinuous rugosity on the head dorsum, and M. serica is distinctly smaller than Myrmica titanica.

Distribution
Central and southern China, Taiwan, northern Vietnam; it seems the commonest and widespread ritae-group species.

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Oriental Region: Taiwan, Vietnam. Palaearctic Region: China.

Nomenclature

 *  serica. Myrmica margaritae var. serica Wheeler, W.M. 1928c: 8 (w.) CHINA. Radchenko & Elmes, 1998: 9 (m.); Weber, 1950b: 223 (q.). Subspecies of ritae: Weber, 1950b: 222. Raised to species: Radchenko, 1994a: 44. See also: Radchenko & Elmes, 2010: 275.

Etymology
Radchenko and Elmes (2010) - named for the “Land of Serica” the Greek/Roman name for a poorly known Kingdom in East Asia, that gave its name to the Latin serica = silk, so that the old name for China became synonymous with “The Land of Silk”.