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HYMENOPTERA, Formicoidea -- Members now grouped with Vespoidea

One family, the Formicidae, is included in this superfamily. There is a great deal of biological diversity among ants. Some feed on fungus, plant nectaries, honeydew, etc., while others are exclusively entomophagous. Entomophagous species are predators of a wide range of insects and all host stages thereof. Ants have been employed successfully in biological control (see below), but many species are pestiferous (please refer to <formicid.htm> for further details).

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References: Please refer to <biology.ref.htm>, [Additional references may be found at: MELVYL Library]

Bolton, Barry. 1995. A New General Catalogue of the Ants of the World. Harvard University Press.

Borror DJ, C. A. Triplehorn & D. M. Delong. 1989. Introduction to the Study of Insects, 6th Edition. Saunders College Publishing.

Hölldobler B & E. O. Wilson. 1990. The Ants. Harvard University Press.

Hölldobler B & E. O. Wilson. 1990. The Ants. Harvard University Press.

Hölldobler B & E. O. Wilson. 1998. Journey to the Ants: A Story of Scientific Exploration. Belknap Press.

Hölldobler B & E. O. Wilson. 2009. The Superorganism: The Beauty, Elegance and Strangeness of Insect Societies. Norton & Co..

Pilgrim, E. M., C. D. Von Dohlen & J. P. Pitts. 2008. Molecular phylogenetics of Vespoidea indicate paraphyly of the superfamily and novel relationships of its component families and subfamilies. Zoologica scripta, 37: 539-560.

Wilson, E. O. & W. L. Brown. 1956. New parasitic ants of the genus Kyidris, with notes on ecology and behavior. Ins. Sociaux 3: 439-54.