Ants occupy a great variety of habitats, with about 12,000
known species worldwide. Their biomass exceeds that of all vertebrates combined.
Their social organization is orchestrated by intricate chemical communication.
As central players in many ecosystems their species composition gives an
indication of ecosystem health and functioning; while some are purists reliant
on undisturbed ecosystems, others are weeds or even invasive. Their abundance
and varied ecological roles make them influential in agricultural ecosystems
around the world. Amid growing concern about biodiversity loss, some ant species
and communities are at risk of disappearing; some even appearing on the IUCN Red
List,while some invasives contribute to the extinction of other creatures.
Improved understanding of ants, how to identify them, where they live, what they
do is therefore a vital task in sustainably developing our world. Perhaps the
best befitting tribute to these has been paid by Holldobler and Wilson (1990);
Ants are everywhere, but only occasionally noticed. They run much of the terrestrial world as the premier soil turners, channelers of energy, dominatrices of the insect fauna - yet receive only passing mention in textbooks on ecology. They employ the most complex forms of chemical communication of any animals and their social organization provides an illuminating contrast to that of human beings, but not one biologist in a hundred can describe the life cycle of any species. The neglect of ants in science and natural history is a shortcoming that should be remedied, for they represent the culmination of insect evolution, in the same sense that human beings represent the summit of vertebrate evolution.