Native to southern Europe, Lepisiota frauenfeldi (Mayr, 1855) is an invasive species that has been introduced worldwide through cross-border trade. It has been documented to be distributed in the Mediterranean, Middle East, Africa, and Indo-Malaya. This species, also known as Browsing ant, was first found around a warehouse in Gwangyang, Jeollanam-do, South Korea, and was probably introduced into the country via cargo. The external morphology and gene sequences were checked for taxonomic identification, and it was identified as Lepisiota frauenfeldi based on comparative analysis of the morphological classification key and NCBI data. This study is the first report of a newly invasive alien ant and provides basic data on the species, including external morphological and ecological features and sequencing results.

• Heejo Lee(National Ecosystem Survey Team, National Institute of Ecology, Seocheon, Korea)
• Yijung Kim(Wetland Research Team, National Institute of Ecology, Changnyeong, Korea)
• Beom-jun Jang(Invasive Alien Species Team, National Institute of Ecology, Seocheon, Korea)
• Jongwon Song(Invasive Alien Species Team, National Institute of Ecology, Seocheon, Korea)
• Ye Hyung Lee(Department of Systems Biology, College of Life Science and Biotechnology, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea)
• Dayeong Kim(Invasive Alien Species Team, National Institute of Ecology, Seocheon, Korea)