Workers are about 3 mm long.
Fine-art photographic collection
Lepisiota bipartita
A three-millimetre worker ant equipped with three simple eyes on top of its head — organs many worker ants lose completely.
About this species
Lepisiota bipartita(Smith, 1861)
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Lepisiota bipartita is a small bicoloured ant distributed from the eastern Mediterranean into South Asia. Workers have a red-brown middle body, darker head and abdomen, long antennae and small propodeal teeth.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Hymenoptera · Formicidae · Lepisiota
Accepted taxon. · checked 2026-07-15
Greece and the eastern Mediterranean through the Middle East to IndiaBroad range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
Greece and the eastern Mediterranean through the Middle East to India
Open dry habitats, disturbed ground and lightly wooded sites.
Ground-foraging worker.
Sugary liquids, honeydew and small arthropod food.
Social colony.
What makes this species remarkable?
Workers bear three ocelli on the crown of the head — simple light-detecting eyes that are commonly associated with winged reproductive ants rather than the permanently wingless workforce.
The body is sharply bipartite in colour: a reddish mesosoma is locked between a darker head and gaster, turning the species name into a visible anatomical description.
Although only around three millimetres long, the worker carries long antennae, bulging compound eyes and propodeal teeth, concentrating several sensory and defensive structures into a body smaller than a grain of rice.