Biology:Outline of ants

Short description: Overview of and topical guide to ants

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to ants:

Ants – social insects with geniculate (elbowed) antennae and a distinctive node-like structure that forms a slender waist. Ants are of the family Formicidae and evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago, diversifying after the rise of flowering plants. More than 12,500 out of an estimated total of 22,000 species have been classified.

Essence of ants

• Ant colony
• Myrmecology – scientific study of ants

Biological classification

• Kingdom: Animalia
  • Phylum: Arthropoda
    • Class: Insecta
      • Order: Hymenoptera
        • Suborder: Apocrita
          • Superfamily: Vespoidea
            • Family: Formicidae (family authority: Latreille, 1809)

Kinds of ants

Ant

• List of ant genera
• List of ants of Great Britain

Subfamilies

Extant subfamilies

• Agroecomyrmecinae
• Amblyoponinae
• Aneuretinae
• Dolichoderinae
• Dorylinae
• Ectatomminae
• Formicinae
• Heteroponerinae
• Leptanillinae
• Martialinae
• Myrmeciinae
• Myrmicinae
• Paraponerinae
• Ponerinae
• Proceratiinae
• Pseudomyrmecinae

Fossil subfamilies

• †Armaniinae (sometimes treated as the family Armaniidae within the superfamily Formicoidea)
• †Brownimeciinae
• †Formiciinae
• †Sphecomyrminae

Myrmecologists

• Murray S. Blum (1929–2015)
• Barry Bolton
• Horace Donisthorpe (1870–1951)
• Auguste Forel (1848–1931)
• William Gould (1715–1799)
• Bert Hölldobler (born 1936)
• Thomas C. Jerdon (1811–1872)
• Sir John Lubbock (1st Lord and Baron Avebury) (1834–1913)
• Derek Wragge Morley (1920–1969)
• Frederick Smith (1805–1879)
• John Obadiah Westwood (1805–1893)
• William Morton Wheeler (1865–1937)
• E.O. Wilson (1929–2021)