This site is inteded for use by ecologists interested in studying and identifying ants from Canada, USA, and northern Mexico. You do not have to be a myrmecologist (an ant specialist) to effectively use this site. Nor do you have to be an entomologist. We have tried to keep the technical terminology to a minimum while preserving accuracy of taxonomic communication. We follow the terminology used by Steve Shattuck in his book “Australian Ants”.We also have a link to Torre-Bueno which is the standard dictionary of terms used in entomology.
This site is not intended for use by amateurs with no training in biology. This is not a "Golden Guide" to ants (as valuable as that would be).
This site is organized around five questions:
There are no identification keys in this site. However, each genus and subgenus has a section on how to recognize it and how to tell it apart from similar genera. This information is best used as a supplement to the available identification keys. See How to Identify Ants [link not yet available].