A new ant species of the ant genus Polyrhachis Smith from the aequalis-group in China

In this article, a new species, Polyrhachis zhoui sp. nov., of the subgenus Myrmothrinax, is described based on worker, gyne and male specimens collected in Guangdong and Hainan Provinces, China. This new species belongs to the P. aequalis-group, for which an updated key is provided. The present record significantly increases the known distribution range of this species group to the north, especially within the Indochinese subregion, supporting recent research trends demonstrating that many species await discovery in the southern regions of China. This finding contributes to an increase in the total number of Polyrhachis ant species recorded in China to 56.