Myrmica elmesi
Myrmica elmesi is a species of ant in the subfamily Myrmicinae. The species, known from north-west Himalaya, belongs to pachei group, and is significantly different from all other described species of this group.
Distribution and habitat
Species has been collected from leaf litter in both the habitats. The collection site at Machedi has a patchy Cedrus forest along with agricultural land surrounding the site; moreover the area has lot of anthropogenic activities with a dry type of environment. The collection site at Sarthal has dense Cedrus forest with abundant leaf litter, no agricultural land, it remains snow clad from November to beginning of March and has very limited anthropogenic activities with only nomads visiting the area with comparatively wet environment.This zone where the species is distributed is a transitional zone between sub temperate and temperate Himalaya and geographically it penetrates in to the Palearctic realm. Besides, Himalayan ecology is temperature-dependent. The snow line occurs at an average of 6000 meters above mean sea level and the timber line at an average of 3000 meters. With this sort of environment, the microclimate plays an important role for ants like Myrmica which prefer to live under stones or in rare cases in leaf litter, as the soil temperature is comparatively higher to ambient temperature in these habitats.