Outline of ants
{{Short description|1=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.
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Essence of ants
- Ant colony
- Myrmecology – scientific study of ants
= Biological classification =
Kinds of ants
= 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
Myrmecologists
{{main|Myrmecology#List of notable 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)