Exploring the Fascinating Diversity of Ant’s (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) Fauna in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Ants are social insects with approximately 490,000 described living species worldwide.Ants are important element of an ecosystem structure and dynamic.Ants belong to order Hymenoptera and family Formicidae, live in colonies which are further divided into various casts including workers, queen, drone, and soldiers.The current survey was conducted to determine the species diversity of ant fauna in four districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan from February-October, 2023.The ants were randomly collected from Mardan, Charsadda, Swabi and Buner, and then identified morphologically with keys.The three sub-families identified were Myrmicinae, Formicinae, Dolichoderinae.The sub-family Myrmicinae was represented by four genera, Formicinae was represented by four genera, while Dolichoderinae were represented by only single genus.The most abundant genus was the Pheidole represented by three species, followed by Camponotus represented by two species, while other genera i.e., Paratracheinae, Lepisiota, Cataglyphis, Messor, Monomorium, Crematogaster and Tapinoma, each represented by a single species.Camponotus aungusticolis, Camponotus compressus and Monomorium indicum, were recorded from all areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while the Crematogaster setipes, Messor orientalis, Tapinoma indicum, Crematogaster subnuda Paratracheinae longicornis, Lepisiota fraunfeldi, Pheidole sykesi, Pheidole binghami and Lepisiota fergusoni were recorded from indoor sites.The seven species documented for the first time from Pakistan are Monomorium indicum, Cataglyphis setipes, Crematogaster subnuda, Pheidole binghami, Pheidole fergusoni and Tapinoma indicum.While the remaining species, Camponotus compressus, Camponotus aungusticolis, Lepisiota fraunfeldi, Paratracheinae longicornis and Pheidole sykesi were also recorded in this study as well as in previous researches.