Soil and leaf litter ants from the Amazon Region offer new distribution records for Colombia

Seven new species records are reported for the country and the distribution of 14 species is extended within the Department of Caquetá. These 21 records belong to five subfamilies and sixteen genera. For the first time, the genera <i>Lenomyrmex</i> (Fernández & Palacio), <i>Myrmelachista</i> (Roger), <i>Oxyepoecus</i> (Santschi) and <i>Stegomyrmex</i> (Emery) are recorded for the Colombian Amazon. Additionally, the first case of an ergatoid queen in <i>Probolomyrmexkelleri</i> (Oliveira & Feitosa) is documented. The northernmost records of <i>Adelomyrmexstriatus</i> (Fernández) and <i>Centromyrmexgigas</i> (Forel) are also reported. Morphological observations, distribution data and images of all recorded species are included. The specimens were collected using the Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility (TSBF) and Winkler extraction methodologies. Furthermore, we present a checklist of ants from Caquetá, listing <b>321</b> species for the Department. Finally, we update the known ant diversity of Colombia, reporting a total of <b>1.280</b> species and <b>110</b> genera.