Report of New Species of Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from Iran in the Eastern half of Kurdistan

Ants include more than 12000 species that belong to Formicidae family and Hymenoptera order. They are one of the most successful sociable insects, due to their ability to move a huge amount of soil, called them soil engineers. The members of this family have ecological, biological, and economical significant roles in the environment, thereby being applied as the biological indicators by researchers. Ants have special importance in biological pest control, disinfection, environmental indicators, etc. Sampling was performed during three seasons of spring‚ summer, and autumn from 10 stations in the eastern half of Kurdistan Province. The samples were detected in crawl tubes containing 70% alcohol in Shahid Beheshti laboratory by stereomicroscope and valid identification keys up to gender and species. The results of this study led us to identify five new species from two subfamilies Myrmicinae and Formicinae that are reported for the first time from Kurdistan Province in Iran.