Family Formicidae - Ants

hormigas (Spanish), fourmi (French)

Family Formicidae is named for the genus Formica, that from Latin formica ant (1).

Modern English ant is derived from Middle English ante, amte, amete, that from Old English aemete, aemette (1), (Wiktionary--ant). (An Archaic Modern English variant for ant is emmet.) The Old English word is, perhaps, a compound of ai-, or ā- off, away, plus *maetan, or *mait, to cut, engrave, etc. (In linguistics, the * indicates a hypothetical root, one not attested in the written record.) The original meaning was perhaps "cutter or biter off", referring the biting habits. An alternative interpretation is that it meant "cut in", referring to the indented shape of the insect (1). (This is the origin of both Greek entomos and Latin insectum, so it is a plausible origin for aemete.)

11 subfamilies, 297 genera, and about 8,800 species worldwide

580 species in 74 genera in North America (2)

1-25 mm

Ants have a slender pedicel ("waist"), which is typical in suborder Apocrita, but ants can be distinguished from wasps by their elbowed antennae. These small insects are usually black, brown, or reddish, and they live in colonies with well-defined castes that typically comprise a worker caste of sterile females and a reproductive caste of winged males and females.

Virtually all ant keys are for workers only. Since males and often queens, can be radically different in appearance from workers, you have to collect the worker stage at the same time as the reproductives.

Key to the Subfamilies

See diagram for anatomical terms for ants:

   

throughout North America and the world

Ants generally live underground or in dead wood, but habitat may vary with genus and species.

Food choice depends on particular genus and/or species. Many ants are predators or scavengers while others "milk" aphids and other insects for their sweet secretions, or cultivate fungus on cut leaves.

All living ant species are eusocial (meaning, truly social).