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This monograph deals with ants collected from several states of Southern India, viz., Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The main collection on which this work is based is from Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Jerdon (1851) worked on Indian ants, particularly from Southern India and recorded 46 species under 8 genera from this region. Later on, Rothney (1889), Forel (1900a, b, c), Donisthorpe (1942c, 1943) contributed much to the ant fauna of Southern India. Bingham (1903) also made a significant contribution in this direction and recorded 498 species from this region. Although several workers have contributed to the knowledge of the ant fauna of Southern India, no one has exclusively studied the ant fauna of this region.
This is the first attempt by the present author to consolidate the knowledge of the ant fauna of Southern India. Altogether 219 species under 48 genera and 7 subfamilies have been reported in this monograph. Out of these, 22 species are reported for the first time from Southern India and 2 species are new records from India. This also includes the descriptions of a worker and a female of a new species, Crematogaster pradipi sp. nov., along with a new description of a female of a known species, Crematogaster flava Forel, 1886 separately. The taxa marked with a single asterisk (*) in "the list of Taxa in Systematic Account", are new records from the states of Southern India and those marked with double asterisks (**) are new records from India. Keys to the identification of the subfamilies, genera and species dealt with in the monograph from this region have also been incorporated. A separate table showing the distributional pattern of recorded species zone-wise, along with a distributional analysis of the same, is also provided to see the distribution of the species at a glance.
