Nearly all ant colonies also have some fertile males called "drones" and one or more fertile females called " queens" ( gynes). Larger colonies consist of various castes of sterile, wingless females, most of which are workers (ergates), as well as soldiers (dinergates) and other specialised groups. They are easily identified by their geniculate (elbowed) antennae and the distinctive node-like structure that forms their slender waists.Īnts form colonies that range in size from a few dozen predatory individuals living in small natural cavities to highly organised colonies that may occupy large territories and consist of millions of individuals. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of 22,000 species have been classified. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. in 2014 Īnts are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. ‡ The previous dorylomorph subfamilies were synonymized under Dorylinae by Brady et al. A phylogeny of the extant ant subfamilies.
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