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, Oman.

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.

Description
Worker

Wachkoo et al. (2021): Head subrectangular; longer than wide, slightly narrowed anteriorly; lateral and posterior margins convex, posterolateral corners rounded; clypeus medially subcarinate; anterior clypeal margin complete and convex; eyes subglobulose, convex, projecting beyond cephalic lateral margins, covering one-third of lateral cephalic margin, placed at posterior half of head; three ocelli present; antennal scape surpassing posterior head margin by about half its length. In lateral view pronotum convex, mesometanotum strongly constricted, lower than pronotum and propodeum, giving mesosoma a dumbbell shape; mesometanotum demarcated; metanotal area distinct; propodeum armed with a pair of teeth diverging posteriorly; propodeal declivity steep. Petiole upright, with smoothly curved sides, dorsally rounded and narrow, without teeth or spines.

Body dull, overall feebly microreticulate, gastral sculpturing even feebler. Body covered with sparse erect setae on head, pronotum and gaster; setae on gaster usually restricted to venter and segmental margins; pubescence very fine and sparse, most visible on head and gaster; almost absent on mesosoma; antennal funiculus with appressed to decumbent pubescence. Color uniformly dark brown to black; antenna, mandible and tarsi brown.

Measurements (n = 6): HL 0.66–0.84; HW 0.59– 0.74; EL 0.20–0.25; SL 0.99–1.08; PnW 0.36–0.52; ML 1.02–1.27; PFL 0.77–0.97; PFW 0.14–0.18 mm. Indices: CI 85–90; SI 146–152; REL 29–30

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