Honey ants, also called honeypot ants, are ants which have specialised workers that are gorged with food to the point that their abdomens swell enormously. Other ants then extract nourishment from them, through the process of trophallaxis. They function as living larders. Honeypot ants belong to any of several genera, including Myrmecocystus and Camponotus. They were first documented in 1881 by Henry C. McCook, and described further in 1908 by William Morton Wheeler.
The Formicinae are a subfamily within the Formicidae containing ants of moderate evolutionary development.
Dolichoderinae is a subfamily of ants, which includes species such as the Argentine ant, the erratic ant, the odorous house ant, and the cone ant. The subfamily presents a great diversity of species throughout the world, distributed in different biogeographic realms, from the Palearctic, Nearctic, Afrotropical region and Malaysia, to the Middle East, Australian, and Neotropical regions.
Aphaenogaster is a genus of myrmicine ants. About 200 species have been described, including 18 fossil species. They occur worldwide except in South America south of Colombia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Antarctica.
Cardiocondyla is an Old World genus of ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae.
Cataglyphis is a genus of ant, desert ants, in the subfamily Formicinae. Its most famous species is C. bicolor, the Sahara Desert ant, which runs on hot sand to find insects that died of heat exhaustion, and can, like other several other Cataglyphis species, sustain body temperatures up to 50°C. Cataglyphis is also the name of an autonomous rover that won the NASA Sample Return Robot Centennial Challenge inspired by the navigation approaches used by desert ants.
Crematogaster is an ecologically diverse genus of ants found worldwide, which are characterised by a distinctive heart-shaped gaster (abdomen), which gives them one of their common names, the Saint Valentine ant. Members of this genus are also known as cocktail ants because of their habit of raising their abdomens when alarmed. Most species are arboreal. These ants are sometimes known as acrobat ants.
Plagiolepis is an ant genus of the formic acid-producing subfamily Formicinae. The genus is found in tropical and temperate regions of the Old World.
Tetramorium is a genus of ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae that includes more than 520 species.
Acropyga is a genus of small formicine ants. Some species can be indirect pests. A. acutiventris, which is found from India to Australia, tends subterranean, root-feeding mealybugs of the species Xenococcus annandalei. Living, gravid females are carried in the jaws of A. acutiventris queens during their nuptial flight, to establish the symbiotic association in founding colonies. Other Acropyga species have relationships with different species of mealybugs, and it could be a trait common to the whole genus.
Aenictus is a large army ant genus distributed in the Old World tropics and subtropics. It contains about 181 species, making it one of the larger ant genera of the world.
Cerapachys is a genus of ants in the subfamily Dorylinae. Species are mainly myrmecophagous ants which raid the nests of other ants for prey. The genus is distributed widely throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world, with the majority of species known from the Indo-Australian region.
Carebara is a genus of ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae. It is one of the largest myrmicine genera with more than 174 species distributed worldwide in the tropics and the Afrotropical region. Many of them are very tiny cryptic soil and leaf litter inhabitants. They nest in rotten wood to which the bark is still adherent in the Afrotropical region, or may be lestobiotic nesting near other ant species. Some species are known to exist parasitically within termite nests. Little is known about the biology of the species. However, they are notable for the vast difference in size between queens and workers.
Lepisiota is an Old World genus of ants in the subfamily Formicinae. They nest in rotten wood, in standing trees or in the ground, generally in less forested areas.
Nylanderia is a large genus of ants in the subfamily Formicinae. The genus has a nearly cosmopolitan distribution with species inhabiting a wide array of habitats in almost all geographic regions. Nylanderia, currently containing over 110 species, is an ecologically important genus, with some species reported as being invasive. The ants are small to medium in size and range in color from pale yellow to black.
Meranoplus is an Old World genus of ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae. With over 80 valid species, it is predicted that over half of the Meranoplus diversity remains undescribed, most of these from Australia.
Stigmacros is an Australian genus of small ants in the subfamily Formicinae. The genus is endemic to Australia. They are generalist predators that forage in the leaf litter, on the ground or in trees.
Melophorus bagoti, or red honey ant, is an Australian species of desert ant in the subfamily Formicinae.
