We present a large-scale molecular phylogeny of the ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), based on 4.5 kilobases of sequence data from six gene regions extracted from 139 of the 288 described extant genera, representing 19 of the 20 subfamilies. All but two subfamilies are recovered as monophyletic. Divergence time estimates calibrated by minimum age constraints from 43 fossils indicate that most of the subfamilies representing extant ants arose much earlier than previously proposed but only began to diversify during the Late Cretaceous to Early Eocene. This period also witnessed the rise of angiosperms and most herbivorous insects.

/pdf/phylogeny-of-the-ants-diversification-in-the-age-of-50891r6c1b.pdf

Phylogeny of the Ants: Diversification in the Age of Angiosperms

Close relatedness has long been considered crucial to the evolution of eusociality. However, it has recently been suggested that close relatedness may be a consequence, rather than a cause, of eusociality. We tested this idea with a comparative analysis of female mating frequencies in 267 species of eusocial bees, wasps, and ants. We found that mating with a single male, which maximizes relatedness, is ancestral for all eight independent eusocial lineages that we investigated. Mating with multiple males is always derived. Furthermore, we found that high polyandry (>2 effective mates) occurs only in lineages whose workers have lost reproductive totipotency. These results provide the first evidence that monogamy was critical in the evolution of eusociality, strongly supporting the prediction of inclusive fitness theory.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/320/5880/1213.full.pdf

Ancestral Monogamy Shows Kin Selection Is Key to the Evolution of Eusociality

Agriculture is a specialized form of symbiosis that is known to have evolved in only four animal groups: humans, bark beetles, termites, and ants. Here, we reconstruct the major evolutionary transitions that produced the five distinct agricultural systems of the fungus-growing ants, the most well studied of the nonhuman agriculturalists. We do so with reference to the first fossil-calibrated, multiple-gene, molecular phylogeny that incorporates the full range of taxonomic diversity within the fungus-growing ant tribe Attini. Our analyses indicate that the original form of ant agriculture, the cultivation of a diverse subset of fungal species in the tribe Leucocoprineae, evolved ≈50 million years ago in the Neotropics, coincident with the early Eocene climatic optimum. During the past 30 million years, three known ant agricultural systems, each involving a phylogenetically distinct set of derived fungal cultivars, have separately arisen from the original agricultural system. One of these derived systems subsequently gave rise to the fifth known system of agriculture, in which a single fungal species is cultivated by leaf-cutter ants. Leaf-cutter ants evolved remarkably recently (≈8–12 million years ago) to become the dominant herbivores of the New World tropics. Our analyses identify relict, extant attine ant species that occupy phylogenetic positions that are transitional between the agricultural systems. Intensive study of those species holds particular promise for clarifying the sequential accretion of ecological and behavioral characters that produced each of the major ant agricultural systems.

https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/105/14/5435.full.pdf

Major evolutionary transitions in ant agriculture

Ants are the world's most diverse and ecologically dominant eusocial organisms. Resolving the phylogeny and timescale for major ant lineages is vital to understanding how they achieved this success. Morphological, molecular, and paleontological studies, however, have presented conflicting views on early ant evolution. To address these issues, we generated the largest ant molecular phylogenetic data set published to date, containing approximately 6 kb of DNA sequence from 162 species representing all 20 ant subfamilies and 10 aculeate outgroup families. When these data were analyzed with and without outgroups, which are all distantly related to ants and hence long-branched, we obtained conflicting ingroup topologies for some early ant lineages. This result casts strong doubt on the existence of a poneroid clade as currently defined. We compare alternate attachments of the outgroups to the ingroup tree by using likelihood tests, and find that several alternative rootings cannot be rejected by the data. These alternatives imply fundamentally different scenarios for the early evolution of ant morphology and behavior. Our data strongly support several notable relationships within the more derived formicoid ants, including placement of the enigmatic subfamily Aenictogitoninae as sister to Dorylus army ants. We use the molecular data to estimate divergence times, employing a strategy distinct from previous work by incorporating the extensive fossil record of other aculeate Hymenoptera as well as that of ants. Our age estimates for the most recent common ancestor of extant ants range from approximately 115 to 135 million years ago, indicating that a Jurassic origin is highly unlikely.

https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/103/48/18172.full.pdf

Evaluating alternative hypotheses for the early evolution and diversification of ants.

Art. 1 As pilhas e baterias que contenham em suas composições chumbo, cádmio, mercúrio e seus compostos, necessárias ao funcionamento de quaisquer tipos de aparelhos, veículos ou sistemas, móveis ou fixos, bem como os produtos eletro-eletrônicos que as contenham integradas em sua estrutura de forma não substituível, após seu esgotamento energético, serão entregues pelos usuários aos estabelecimentos que as comercializam ou à rede de assistência técnica autorizada pelas respectivas indústrias, para repasse aos fabricantes ou importadores, para que estes adotem, diretamente ou por meio de terceiros, os procedimentos de reutilização, reciclagem, tratamento ou disposição final ambientalmente adequada.

Ministério do meio ambiente

"A name is forever, or at least as long as taxonomy continues", Barry Bolton writes, and here are all the names, antique and modern, of all the ants that are or ever were - from the arctic to the tropical, the fossilized to the living, the mislabelled to the newly christened members for the family Formicidae. For every name that has ever been applied to ants, the book supplies a history and an account of current usage, together with a fully documented indication of the present-day classification. Its comprehensive bibliography provides references to original description, synonymy, homonymy, changes in rank, status and availability, and alterations in generic status. Organized by family group, genus group and species group, this meticulously detailed but easily used volume is the ultimate resource for myrmecology. Along with Bolton's "Identification Guide to the Ant Genera of the World", it should be a useful reference for anyone, expert or amateur, with an interest in ants.

A New General Catalogue of the Ants of the World

Synopsis and classification of Formicidae

The genera of the myrmicine ant tribe Dacetonini are revised and redefined. A phylogenetic analysis, new classification and key to genera are presented. Diagnoses of the genera and groups of genera are given and known aspects of their biology, taxonomy and distribution are summarized. The functional morphology of the mandible is investigated; two modes of action are differentiated and their significance is discussed. Nine genera are recognized: Acanthognathus, Colobostruma, Daceton, Epopostruma, Mesostruma (gen. rev.), Microdaceton, Orectognathus, Pyramica (gen. rev.) and Strumigenys. Seventeen names in the genus-group are newly synonymized with Pyramica: Asketogenys, Chelystruma, Cladarogenys, Codiomyrmex, Codioxenus, Dorisidris, Dysedrognathus, Epitritus, Glamyromyrmex, Gymnomyrmex, Kyidris, Neostruma, Pentastruma, Serrastruma, Smithistruma, Tingimyrmex and Trichoscapa.

Ant genera of the tribe Dacetonini (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Detailed comparative morphology of the ants continues to provide an abundance of new characters with great significance for our understanding of formicide phylogeny. This study discusses earlier phylogenies and goes on to show that the doryline section, nominated here to include the subfamilies Dorylinae, Aenictinae stat. n., Cerapachyinae and Ecitoninae, forms a monophyletic lineage within the poneroid group of subfamilies, with Leptanillinae as the sister-group. Numerous characters, both old and new, are considered, the section is defined and discussed, and diagnostic autapomorphies are given for each subfamily. The wider relationships of the doryline section are considered with respect to its position in the poneroid group and the poneroid complex, and the elevation of Aenictinae to subfamily status is justified. A provisional new-format key to ant subfamilies is provided at the end of the paper, and the phylogeny of the poneroid complex outlined in the light of this survey.

Army ants reassessed: the phylogeny and classification of the doryline section (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

The assumption that a number of apterous females belonging to the Monomorium salomonis-group are socially parasitic or inquilinous is reviewed and discarded. An hypothesis is presented which postulates that the development of aptery in females of this group is associated with a shift in dispersal strategy in the species involved. Morphological modifications connected with this process are outlined and possible consequences discussed.

Barry Bolton

Papers

A New General Catalogue of the Ants of the World

Synopsis and classification of Formicidae

Ant genera of the tribe Dacetonini (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Army ants reassessed: the phylogeny and classification of the doryline section (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

Apterous females and shift of dispersal strategy in the Monomorium salomonis-group (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)