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

General myrmecology concepts

Ant colony optimization algorithms Ant mill

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)

External links