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Formicinae

(Subfamily)

Overview

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Formicinae is a within the Formicidae containing ants of moderate evolutionary development.

Formicines retain some primitive features such as the presence of cocoons around pupae, the presence of ocelli in workers, and little tendency toward reduction of palp or antennal segmentation in most species, except subterranean groups. Extreme modification of mandibles is rare, except in the genera Myrmoteras and Polyergus. On the other hand, some members show considerable evolutionary advancement in behaviors such as slave-making and symbiosis with root-feeding homopterans. Finally, all formicines have a very reduced sting and enlarged venom reservoir, with the venom gland, specialized (uniquely among ants) for the production of formic acid.

Classification

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The tribal structure of Formicinae is not completely understood. This list follows the scheme at antbase.org, but there are other schemes and names.

Photos

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Taxonomy

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The Subfamily Formicinae is a member of the Family Formicidae. Here is the complete "parentage" of Formicinae:

The Subfamily Formicinae is further organized into finer groupings including:

Genera

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Acropyga

Acropyga is a of small formicine ants. [more]

Anoplolepis

Anoplolepis is a genus of in the family Formicidae. [more]

Calomyrmex

[more]

Camponotus

Carpenter ants are large (¼ in–1 in) indigenous to many parts of the world. They prefer dead, damp wood in which to build nests. Sometimes carpenter ants will hollow out sections of trees. The most likely species to be infesting a house in the United States is the Black carpenter ant, Camponotus pennsylvanicus. However, there are over a thousand other species in the genus Camponotus.
[more]

Formica

Formica is a of ants. It is the type genus of the family Formicidae and the subfamily Formicinae, and in turn Formica's own type species is the European red wood ant Formica rufa. Common names for this group are wood ant, mound ant, and field ant. Many of the better known forest species have common names that include the words "wood ant", although F.rufa is also known as the "horse ant". (However in German, the equivalent term Rossameise refers to the carpenter ants of the genus Camponotus.) [more]

Lasius

Lasius is a genus of boreal formicine ants. [more]

Myrmecocystus

[more]

Notoncus

[more]

Oecophylla

Weaver ants or Green ants ( Oecophylla) are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae (order Hymenoptera). Weaver ants are obligately arboreal and are known for their unique nest building behaviour where workers construct nests by weaving together leaves using larval silk. Colonies can be extremely large consisting of more than a hundred nests spanning numerous trees and contain more than half a million workers. Like many other ant species, weaver ants prey on small insects and supplement their diet with carbohydrate-rich honeydew excreted by small insects (Hemiptera). Oecophylla workers exhibit a clear bimodal size distribution, with almost no overlap between the size of the minor and major workers. The major workers are approximately eight to ten millimeters in length and the minors approximately half the length of the majors. There is a division of labour associated with the size difference between workers. Major workers forage, defend, maintain and expand the colony whereas minor workers tend to stay within the nests where they care for the brood and 'milk' scale insects in or close to the nests. Oecophylla weaver ants vary in color from reddish to yellowish brown dependent on the species. Oecophylla smaragdina found in Australia often have bright green gasters. These ants are highly territorial and workers aggressively defend their territories against intruders. Because of their aggressive behaviour, weaver ants are sometime used by indigenous farmers, particularly in southeast Asia, as natural biocontrol agents against agricultural pests. Although Oecophylla weaver ants lack a functional sting they can inflict painful bites and often spray formic acid directly at the bite wound resulting in intense discomfort. [more]

Opisthopsis

[more]

Paratrechina

Paratrechina is an ant genus from the Formicinae (Tribe Plagiolepidini). There are over 150 described species and subspecies, some of which occur on every continent (except Antarctica). They form large colonies in open soil or under rocks or other objects, or in rotten wood on the ground. [more]

Plagiolepis

Plagiolepis is a genus of in family Formicidae. It contains the following species: [more]

Polyergus

Polyergus, or Legionnaire ant, is a small of 6 described species (and several possible undescribed species) of "slave-raiding" ants, sometimes called Amazon ants. Its workers are incapable of caring for brood, in part due to their dagger-like, piercing mandibles, but more importantly, because in the evolution of their parasitism, they have lost the "behavioral wiring" to carry out even rudimentary brood care, or even to feed themselves. Polyergus species subsist solely as a ruling caste, maintaining a worker force by capturing ants of the closely related genus Formica in massive colony-to-colony raids. The captured ants are generally referred to as "slaves" in scientific literature, though recent attempts have been made to apply other human cultural models, such as describing the ruling caste as "parasites" or "raiders" and the servant caste as "hosts", "help-ants", or "domesticated animals". [more]

Polyrhachis

[more]

Prolasius

[more]

Pseudolasius

[more]

Raptiformica

[more]

Serviformica

[more]

More info about the Genus Serviformica may be found here.

References

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Sources

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Last Revised: November 20, 2008