THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the efforts of three researchers from Kerala, two new ant species belonging to the small, cryptic, elusive and rarely collected ant genus called Myrmecina have been discovered from the Eastern Himalayas. The newly-discovered species is also the first record of the genus from the state of Mizoram and takes the number of ant species in the state to 58. In India, just about five species of Myrmecina were known so far.
It was after exploring the hilly terrains of northeast India that Priyadarsanan Dharma Rajan, senior fellow, and Aswaj Punnath and Anoop Karunakaran, researchers, from Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) found the new species, which have been named Myrmecina bawai and Myrmecina reticulata.
According to the researchers, these ants live in small colonies of 30 to 150 individuals under stones or decaying wood. The discovery is significant as it is a cryptic species, often missed out on visual surveys. They dwell in hidden habitats, such as under rotting wood, leaf litter. “There are many ants that are yet to be discovered. Ants are very important from an ecological perspective. They are ecological indicators and act as seed dispersers, predators and pollinators. They may be tiny, but the role they play is a significant one. The ants we discovered are difficult to come across as they live in concealed habitats. Being cryptic ants, the biology and behaviour of Myrmecina species are poorly known,” says Aswaj, project associate at ATREE.
The team used the Winkler extractor, a non-conventional ant collection method for collecting ant samples from the leaf litter. The study was conducted as part of a research project on ‘Bioresource and Sustainable Livelihoods in North East India’, supported by Department of Biotechnology, Government of India.
Kerala is home to three species belonging to this ant genus Myrmecina, of which two are endemic. India has as many as 843 ant species and this discovery takes the number to 845. Of this, 420 ant species are in the North East. “Up to 56 ant species are known from Mizoram, and with this project, we are adding at least 20 more to the region. The Eastern Himalayas is less explored. So there are more chances of coming across new species,” says Aswaj.