Polyrhachis gracilior

Polyrhachis gracilior is a species of ant found in the southwest and northeast India. It is one of the few ants that build arboreal nests^[1] made of leaves stitched together using silk produced by their larvae.

Polyrhachis gracilior
A worker (from the Western Ghats)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Formicinae
Genus:	Polyrhachis
Subgenus:	Myrmhopla
Species:	P. gracilior
Binomial name
Polyrhachis gracilior Forel, 1893

Originally described as a "race" of Polyrhachis furcata, it was elevated to a full species by C T Bingham who noted differences in the shape of the spines.^[2] A species described from Travancore as weberi by Horace Donisthorpe in 1943, was identified as being identical to gracilior by Barry Bolton.^[3]

• 
  With a larva
• 
  Nest between leaves