Lepisiota sericea

This species seems widespread in India. Specimens were hand collected, under stones, from tree trunks and the ground. (Wachkoo et al., 2021)

Identification
Collingwood and Agosti (1996) - HW 0.63; SI 158. This is a dull sculptured species also characterized by its wide simply-angled petiole about 0.3 times HW. The mesosoma is reddish.

Sharaf et al. (2020) - In their key, Collingwood and Agosti (1996) stated that “this species appeared bicolored with reddish mesosoma lighter than gaster, or entirely reddish." The type material (CASENT0909885) is uniformly dark brown.

Wachkoo et al. (2021) - Lepisiota sericea is a medium to large-sized ant which can be distinguished from the very similar species Lepisiota integra by a combination of a dark brown body, smoothly curved sides of the petiole and a narrow, rounded petiolar dorsum. L. integra has a reddish-brown body, angular sides of the petiole and an emarginate petiolar dorsum with teeth-like apical corners.

Distribution
Afghanistan, India (Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand), Iran, Pakistan, Turkmenistan (Kuznetsov-Ugamsky 1929; Pisarski 1967; Ghahari et al. 2011; Bharti et al. 2016; Rasheed et al. 2020; Wachkoo et al., 2021).

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Afrotropical Region: Saudi Arabia. Oriental Region: India, Pakistan. Palaearctic Region: Afghanistan.

Biology
Mortazavi et al. (2015) reported this species to be associated with the aphid Pterochloroides persicae Cholodkovsky in Iran.

Bodlah et al. (2017) found Lepisiota sericea and Camponotus compressus to be associated with the psyllid Trioza fletcheri minor on the tree Terminalis arjuna in areas around Pothwar, Pakistan.

Nomenclature

 *  sericea. Acantholepis frauenfeldi var. sericea Forel, 1892a: 41 (diagnosis in key) (w.) INDIA. Combination in Lepisiota: Bolton, 1995b: 228. Raised to species: Pisarski, 1967: 408.

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

 * Brown W. L., Jr. 1959. Appendix G. Insecta collected by the expedition. Pp. 229-230 in: Field, H. 1959. An anthropological reconnaissance in West Pakistan, 1955, with appendixes on the archaeology and natural history of Baluchistan and Bahawalpur. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University 52:i-xii,1-332.
 * Kuznetsov-Ugamsky N. N. 1929. Die Gattung Acantholepis in Turkestan. Zoologischer Anzeiger 82: 477-492.
 * Menozzi C. 1939. Formiche dell'Himalaya e del Karakorum raccolte dalla Spedizione italiana comandata da S. A. R. il Duca di Spoleto (1929). Atti della Società Italiana di Scienze Naturali e del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano. 78: 285-345.
 * Pisarski B. 1967. Fourmis (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) d'Afghanistan récoltées par M. Dr. K. Lindberg. Annales Zoologici (Warsaw) 24: 375-425.
 * Rasheed M. T., I. Bodlah, A. G. Fareen, A. A. Wachkoo, X. Huang, and S. A. Akbar. 2019. A checklist of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Pakistan. Sociobiology 66(3): 426-439.
 * Sharaf M. R., B. L. Fisher, H. M. Al Dhafer, A. Polaszek, and A. S. Aldawood. 2018. Additions to the ant fauna (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Oman: an updated list, new records and a description of two new species. Asian Myrmecology 10: e010004