1323 



Superfamily FORMICOIDEA 



By David R. Smith 



Family FORMICIDAE 



Ants are social insects that live in colonies in various ecological situations, most commonly in 

 the soil, rotting wood, and plant cavities. They are practically ubiquitous being extremely prolific 

 in numbers of individuals even though relatively low in numbers of species. Although most ants 

 are free-living, some are parasites on other sjjecies of ants or live as inquilines in the nests of 

 other ants. Most ants are omnivorous, but many have a more highly specialized food require- 

 ment. A number of forms are of concern to man because of their feeding, nesting, or stinging 

 habits. The species that nest in or near houses or other buildings are sometimes considerably an- 

 noying to man. Because of the adaptive ability of many species and their habits of nesting in 

 plants and soil, many forms have been spread throughout the world by commerce. A number of 

 these tramp species are found in North America. 



A colony of ants is usually composed of one or more reproductive females (queens) and wor- 

 kers. At certain times of the year a nest also contains males and virgin females. There are three 

 distinct castes of ants, the female, males, and workers. The female is winged but loses her wings 

 soon after finding a suitable place to begin a new colony; her main purpose is reproduction. The 

 male is winged and is short-lived; he dies soon after mating. The workers are not winged, and 

 their main functions are to build the nest, feed the colony, care for the young, and defend the 

 nest. In some cases, workers are also reproductive forms. Many ants are monomorphic, that is, 

 the workers are all the same size. Other ants are polymorphic, in which case the workers vary 

 considerably in size. In polymorphic sjjecies, the largest workers are commonly termed soldiers 

 or maxims and the smaller workers termed minors or minims. The size of a colony of ants, de- 

 pending on the species and age of the colony, varies and may contain only a few dozen to many 

 thousands of individuals. 



The literature on ants in voluminous. It is impossible to cite every reference on the subject. 

 The following list contains some of the more significant works on a variety of subjects. Further 

 references may be found in the literature cited sections of these citations. There have been 

 many local or state faunal lists and treatments of ants; many of these are given by Smith (1947) 

 who listed 84 publications by states. They are not repeated here. 



I appreciate the cooperation of the following myrmecologists who have reviewed all or parts 

 of this section: A. C. Cole, University of Tennessee, Knoxville; A. Francoeur, Universite du 

 Quebec a Chicoutimi; M. R. Smith, Arlington, Virginia; R. R. Snelling, Los Angeles County 

 Museum, California; and J. F. Watkins II, Baylor University, Waco, Texas. This section is based 

 in large part on the Formicidae sections of the first Hymenoptera Catalog (1951) and its supple- 

 ments (1958, 1967) by M. R. Smith. 



Revision: Creighton, 1950. Harvard Univ., Mus. Comp. Zool., BuL 104: 1-585, 57 pis. (keys to 

 genera and species of N. Amer.). 



