Род Aenictus Shuckard, 1840 (подсемейство Aenictinae) это один из настоящих кочевых муравьёв (Wilson 1964, Gotwald 1995). Большинство видов его специализированные хищники, охотящиеся на других муравьёв (Gotwald 1976, 1995, Rosciszewski and Maschwitz 1994). Только несколько видов Азиатских кочевников, такие как Aenictus gracilis Emery, Aenictus laeviceps (Fr. Smith), Aenictus hodgsoni Forel, и Aenictus paradentatus Jaitrong & Yamane известны в качестве хищников различных беспозвоночных, но включая муравьёв, обязательно используют массовые рейды рабочих за добычей (Gotwald 1995, Hirosawa et al. 2000, Shattuck 2008, Jaitrong and Yamane 2011, Jaitrong et al. 2012). Foraging raids undertaken by these ants occur both day and night, usually across the ground surface but occasionally also in trees (Yamane and Hashimoto 1999). During raids, numerous workers attack ant nests in a small area, with several workers coordinating their efforts to carry large prey items back to the nest or bivouac.

Род Эниктусов это один из крупнейших муравьиных родов мировой фауны. Сегодня известно 187 валидных видов и подвидовых форм (http://www.antwiki.org/Category:Aenictus_species ). В Юго-Восточной Азии обнаружено  80 видов. Среди них 57 видов, принадлежащих к 12 видовым группам, известны только по рабочей касте (Jaitrong and Yamane 2011, Jaitrong and Yamane 2012, Jaitrong and Hashimoto 2012). Several papers have discussed the species groups of Aenictus. The first paper evaluating species groups is Wilson (1964), in which he divided Asian, New Guinean and Australian members of the genus into seven distinct groups based on certain hypothesized "unique, unreversed” characters. Jaitrong and Yamane (2010) established the Aenictus silvestrii group to include three Southeast Asian species with less than 10 antennal segments. Jaitrong et al. (2010) treated seven Oriental and Indo-Australian species that have yellowish and slender body with long legs and antennae as belonging to the Aenictus wroughtonii group. Wiwatwitaya and Jaitrong (2011) treated two Southeast Asian species (Aenictus hottai Terayama & Yamane and Aenictus yamanei Wiwatwitaya & Jaitrong) that have reticulated first gastral tergite as belonging to the Aenictus hottai group. Jaitrong and Yamane (2011) established 12 species groups in the genus and revised the species of two species groups (Aenictus currax and Aenictus laeviceps groups) from the eastern part of the Oriental region, and Indo-Australian and Australasian regions. Jaitrong and Yamane (2012) revised the Aenictus javanus group to include six species and the Aenictus philippinensis group to include four species from Southeast Asia. Lastly, Jaitrong and Hashimoto (2012) treated six Southeast Asian species of the Aenictus minutulus group.

В данной статье авторы ревизуют крупнейшую видовую группу своего рода Aenictus ceylonicus и описываютиз Юго-Восточной Азии 19 новых для науки видов. Morphological and bionomic information is presented for each species. A key to the Southeast Asian species is given. We omit the male-based names from the species treatment in this paper, following Wilson (1964). We anticipate that male-based names will eventually be matched with worker-based names using DNA information, but until then it is important to develop a sound worker-based taxonomy.