Friday, September 5, 2014

Identify ants: Key with links

1. See our comprehensive Catalogue of all the species which have appeared on iSpot, with illustrations and/or links to pics of more than 100 species

2. For a brand-new illustrated key to the 68 Southern African genera [still being developed] go here

3. Scroll down through the illustrations in the links below. These have been arranged more or less in order of size, from smallest to largest. Click on the species name for more info about that species, or on the Sub-Family name for more info about the sub-family.

KEY: 1. Ants that are less than 5 mm long

4. All ants are classified into sub-families; within each of these the various genera and species share certain common characteristics. You can find out more about each sub-family by clicking on these links (these are not the only sub-families that exist, but are the only ones dealt with on this site so far):
Ponerinae (the ‘Primitive’ or Ringbum ants)
Pseudomyrmecinae (the Slender ants)
Dorylinae (the Army or Driver ants)
Aenictinae (the False Army ants)
Dolichoderinae (the Smelly ants)
Myrmicinae (the Double-waisted ants)
Formicinae (the Elegant, Acid-Squirting, Pugnacious or Sugar ants)

5. For a detailed Bayesian Key go here


1 comment:

  1. cool sight mate i was stung in my home town Johannesburg as a kid and never knew what ant it was , it has taken me 18 years to find out thanks .

    ReplyDelete

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