Desert Ant

Good evening Sukanya, Thank you for your comment. I agree with your preference to leave this one for a while. When faced with a difficult decision like this, I often like to "let the dust settle" rather than rushing in.

Good evening Sukanya, I don’t think that Mark will have to eat his ….”dessert”. I can’t see this ant being anything other than a “Desert” Ant – Cataglyphis sp. I was wrong when I mentioned that either C. indicus or C. indica was erroneous. They both exist – C. indicus Pisarski, 1961 and C. indica Pisarski, 1962. I have come across pictures of Cataglyphis indica Pisarski, 1962 in https://eol.org/pages/64046542/media... Unfortunately, it is a dead, mounted specimen. So, it will have lost some “bulk” and the colours are no longer vibrant, but I think this is the ant we are looking for. There are several mentions, in a number of sites, of the the “raised gaster” which is characteristic of Desert Ants. I know that you want your identification to be complete and unequivocal, but you might consider calling your spotting “Cataglyphis sp. nr. Indica” or something along those lines. I feel that this could be helpful to anyone else who might be trying to identify a similar ant. I think that many people will look at your spotting, but not the comments. So, the information could be overlooked. If I uncover any more relevant information, I will let you know.

If that's not ant I'll eat my...

Good Evening Sukanya, I am pretty sure that your insect is an ant and I think it belongs to the Genus Cataglyphis (Formicinae; Formicini). There are 3 Cataglyphis spp. in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ants_of_India..... They are: C. cugiai, C. indicus and C. setipes. I have not yet found pictures of any of these three. In https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cataglyphis..... all three spp. are mentioned, but C. indicus is wrongly named C. indica (or vice cersa - C. indicus might be wrong in the list for India, but either way, the confusion doesn't help). Inaturalist.org has a number of pictures of Cataglyphis spp., but I have not yet looked at them all. I will see what I can do in the next day or two. Sorry, it is not very helpful, but it might be a start.