Abstract 350 words maximum (PLEASE TYPE) Ants are eusocial insects that are diverse, abundant, and globally widespread. These attributes allow ants to play an important role in terrestrial ecosystems; such as significantly contributing to soil turnover, predator-prey relationships, and facilitating biodiversity. This thesis examines how environmental factors and species traits, play a role in determining symbiotic relationships, as well as determining resilience to disturbance. Chapter 1 looks at why ants are good focal taxa to study a wide range of ecological questions including symbiotic associations, climatic influence in species richness, and habitat disturbance on communities. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 involved a database of ants and myrmecophiles, synthesized by me from 351 references, that included 622 ants and 1629 myrmecophiles. In Chapter 2, I examined if the global species richness of myrmecophiles and their symbiotic relationships, was determined by regional ant species richness or climatic variables associated with a latitudinal gradient. I found that both ant species richness and climatic variables influenced myrmecophile richness, but richness of symbiotic relationships were more affected by climatic variables. In Chapter 3, I looked at ant traits such as colony size, diet or morphological traits and determined which were correlated with more myrmecophile associations. I found that large colony size (>1000 000) and number of spines, played an important role in explaining the number of myrmecophiles associated with an ant. Chapter 4 models the host range of different myrmecophile relationships at the species level, contrasting relationship type and taxonomic group to determine if myrmecophiles with beneficial or detrimental relationships have more hosts. I found that beneficial relationships had a higher number of associations compared to detrimental ones. For Chapter 5, I did a field study looking at the effects of grazing intensity and history on below- and aboveground ant communities within the arid woodlands of New South Wales. I found that below-ground communities were resilient to grazing disturbance, and that grazing history had a greater affect on above-ground communities than grazing intensity. Chapter 6 summarizes my findings, discusses the implications of my work, the limitations of the studies, and suggests future paths of research on ants and myrmecophiles.