sp. nov.: A new Chinese (Hymenoptera, Formicidae, Dorylinae) species with a dealate queen, closely allied to the queenless clonal raider ant .

The clonal raider ant, , is a queenless species that reproduces asexually, and these traits make it an attractive model system for laboratory research. However, it is unclear where on the ant phylogeny these traits evolved, partly because few closely related species have been described and studied. Here, we describe a new raider ant species, , from Zhejiang, China. This species is closely related to but can be distinguished by the following features: 1) workers of have an obvious promesonotal suture and a metanotal groove, whereas these characters are ambiguous in ; and 2) the subpetiolar process of is prominent and anteroventrally directed like a thumb with sublinear posteroventral margin, while in , it is anteroventrally directed but slightly backward-bent. Molecular phylogenetic analyses confirm that is genetically distinct from . Importantly, unlike , has a queen caste with wings and well-developed eyes. This suggests that the loss of the queen caste and transition to asexual reproduction by workers is specific to and occurred after that species diverged from closely related congeneric species.