An Inventory of the Ant Fauna (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Chhattisgarh with 20 new records

Chhattisgarh is one of the least explored areas for ant diversity with a mere number of four species represented in the checklist of India by Bharti et al. (2016). Here the study is done based on a collection of Formicidae made from Chhattisgarh during the late winter season. This study shows the existence of 31 species of Formicidae from 34 different sites of 7 districts of Chhattisgarh. This is the first detailed faunal exploration of Formicidae of Chhattisgarh representing a total of 31 species including 20 species as first report from Chhattisgarh. Therefore, the species from Chhattisgarh currently stands at 45 combining result from present study and previous studies done so far.