First Record of Cardiocondyla obscurior Wheeler , 1929 ( Hymenoptera : Formicidae : Myrmicinae ) for Pakistan

Pakistan has a total area of 882000 km2 with a world biogeographic realm, including Indo-Malayan, Palearctic, and Afro-Tropical (Cox & Moore, 1993). The endemism rate is meager; about 7% flowering plants and 3% for mammals have been documented (GOP, 1999). Pakistan’s ant fauna is highly diverse, with mountainous and desert areas with a low degree of endemism. The worldwide transfer of various organisms through humans is well documented. Due to the development of commerce and improvements in transportations, more species are being transported to their nonnative range of occurrence (Ivanov, 2016). Many Agro-ecological activities are performed by ants such as predators of other arthropods, role in mineralization of nutrients, herbivores, seed dispersal, and increasing soil fertility (Pfeiffer et al., 2013). Abstract Ants of the genus Cardiocondyla are considered omnivorous in nature. This genus is native to Afrotropical, Australasia, Indomalaya, Malagasy, Oceania, and Palearctic regions. A total of 72 valid species and 2 valid subspecies has been described worldwide. However, little is known about these ants in Pakistan. As a result of a survey of different sites in the Gatwala park of district Faisalabad during 2018, we collected individuals of the genus Cardiocondyla. Collected specimens were identified using the most recent and available literature. Prior to current work, only two species of this genus were reported for Pakistan. In this study we added the first record of Cardiocondyla obscurior for Pakistan, followed by a brief description, distribution, and identification key. Sociobiology An international journal on social insects


Introduction
Emery originally described the genus Cardiocondyla in 1969. According to Seifert (2003), this is native to Afrotropical, Australasia, Indomalaya, Malagasy, Oceania, and Palearctic regions. A total of 72 valid species and two valid subspecies has been described worldwide (Antweb, 2020). Ants of this genus are commonly found in naturally disturbed sites, wood margin, sand dunes, near the roadside, and often in an environment with less water availability (Seifert, 2003). Workers can be diagnosed based on the following characters; small to minute in size, mandibles with five teeth (variable in size). Clypeus flattened with prominent lateral projection. The antennal segment usually 11-12 with the distinct apical club (3-segmented). Mesosoma forming single connectivity in dorsal view. The propodeal declivity is unarmed to bi-spinose. Pilosity very sparse or absent dorsally (Seifert, 2003).  Chapman and Capco (1951); Radchenko (1995); MacKay (1995); Rigato (2002); Seifert (2003). Seifert et al. (2017) provided the revisionary work on the genus Cardiocondyla. However, little is known about these ants from Pakistan (Menozzi, 1939;Rasheed et al., 2019). In the present work, we added C. obscurior as a new record for Pakistan's ant fauna.

Materials and Methods
As a result of a survey of different sites in the Gatwala park of district Faisalabad during 2018, we collected individuals of genus Cardiocondyla manually using a mouth aspirator. The collected material was identified using an N2GG Zoom Stereo Microscope and available literature: Bingham (1903) and Seifert (2003). Identified specimens are housed in Department of Zoology, University of Agriculture Faisalabad (31°26′2.18″ N, 73°3′53.6″ E). Wheeler, 1929 Cardiocondyla wroughtoni var. obscurior Wheeler. 1929

Description (worker)
Head shorter, anterior margin narrower while posterior margin slightly broader, sub-rectangular in fullface view, color light brown-dark brownish, antennae yellow, gaster black and highly polished. Metanotal grove present, propodeal spines of moderate size and slightly turned inward at outer face. Antennae 12-segmented with 3 segmented club. Eyes placed just below the middle of head, with smaller post ocular distance. Clypeal margin angulates. Mandibles smaller with minute tooth, apical tooth prominent. Antennal scape shorter, not reaching beyond the vertex; carinae prominent, slightly divergent laterally. Pilosity: Head, mesosoma, petiole and postpetiole with minute, whitish and decumbent hairs in profile view. Head, mesosoma, and waist brightly yellowish or yellowish brown. propodeal declivity with tubercles in lateral.…..Cardiocondyla mauritanica 2. Petiole trapezoidal dorsally; mesosoma with fine sculptured, the area near the propodeal spines having minute and irregular sculptures in dorsal………...…...Cardiocondyla wroughtonii -Petiole globose; mesosoma with irregular and minute sculptured throughout in dorsal..….Cardiocondyla obscurior

Ecology
The C. obscurior individuals were observed on small and large shrubs and herbs, shrubs, and the leaf litter for nesting. However, few workers were observed while they were foraging on small grasses and flowers.

Discussion
C. obscurior is considered as cosmopolitan species of Indomalayan region. Some of the species of Cardiocondyla genus were recorded previously as mentioned above in results (Rasheed et al., 2019) from Pakistan, but the genus Cardiocondyla and other species of the Formicidae family were published with a major extension of species record from India (Bharti, 2016;Bharti & Kumar, 2017). This species mostly found in urban areas/outdoors localities (Sanchez-Garcia & Espadaler, 2015;Trigos-Peral & Reyes-Lopez, 2016;Ivanov, 2016), while Seifert (2003), Boer et al. (2018), as well as Espadaler and Nilo (2019) found these species as indoor in France, The Netherlands and Spain, respectively. Many types of tramp ants have been dispersed worldwide, found in our plant materials, packing materials, construction supplies and heavy machines like logging. In certain places they invaded, some of these animals had large population disturbances, which caused severe ecological and economic challenges (Wetterer, 2012).
The species is considered an accomplished tramp ant (Heinze et al., 2006) and has established populations across the world, including northern Europe (Rasplus et al., 2010;Seifert, 2003), but it is not considered a pest nor known to affect native ecosystems adversely. Moreover, it seemed like this species has a social system similar to unicoloniality and is non-informative either in one-to-one experiments (Heinze et al., 2006). The restriction of the two non-tramp ants in the C. wroughtonii group to India and Borneo suggests the native range of C. obscurior to be Southeast Asia. C. obscurior is polygynous and often founds new colonies by nest splitting (Seifert, 2003).
According to the present study results, we believe that the occurrence of C. obscurior in Pakistan should not be trivial. The lack of records in the literature is probably associated with the lack of studies in the group, and probably more records for the species should be pointed out with the development of future research.