The new ant is named Martialis heureka, which translates roughly to 'ant from Mars,' because the ant has a combination of characteristics never before recorded, China's Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying.

It is adapted for dwelling in the soil, is two to three millimetres long, pale, and has no eyes and large mandibles, which Dr Rabeling and colleagues suspect it uses to capture prey.

The ant also belongs to its own new subfamily, one of 21 subfamilies in ants.

This is the first time that a new sub-family of ants with living species has been discovered since 1923. Other new sub-families have been discovered from fossil ants.

Dr Rabeling says his discovery will help biologists better understand the biodiversity and evolution of ants, which are abundant and ecologically important insects.

'This discovery hints at a wealth of species, possibly of great evolutionary importance, still hidden in the soils of the remaining rainforests,' writes Dr Rabeling and his co-authors in a paper reporting their discovery this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. -- BERNAMA