Fig. 1. A tiny fraction of the diversity in natural history of ants. A) The critically invasive "yellow crazy ant,̎ Anoplolepis gracilipes (Smith 1857), tending hemipterans, showcasing the important symbiosis of ants and plant-sucking insects. B) The dominant arboreal "green tree ants,̎ Oecophylla smaragdina (Fabricius 1775), guard the stems of their woven silk leaf nest, likely one of the hundreds of such nests in the tree. C) The trap-jaw ant Myrmoteras iriodum Moffett 1985, one of several lineages to independently evolve power amplification mechanisms for swift mandibular closure. D) A Mycetomoellerius Solomon et al. 2019 worker (left) wanders the fungal blooms of its colony and encounters a socially parasitic ant, Megalomyrmex adamsae Longino 2010b (right). E) Aggressive and polymorphic "siafu,̎ or African driver ants (Dorylus Fabricius 1793), make a heavily defended tunnel with their bodies to transport prey. F) A blur of leaf-cutting ants (Atta cephalotes [Linnaeus 1758]) captures the frantic pace of colony life and extreme locomotory capacity of ants, and size-based behavioral specialization (note the small worker being carried on the leaf in the left-hand side of the frame). All photographs by Alex Wild, www.alexanderwild.com.

Published as part of JillT.Oberski, Griebenow, Zachary H., Adams, Rachelle M.M., Andersen, Alan, Andrade-Silva, Joudellys, Barden, Phillip, Borowiec, Marek L., Brady, Seán, Casadei-Ferreira, Alexandre, Csősz, Sándor, Dias, Amanda Martins, Dias, Ratnayake Kaluarachchige Sriyani, Feitosa, Rodrigo Machado, Fernandez, Fernando, Fisher, Brian L., General, David Emmanuel M., Gomez, Kikó, Hammel, Jörg U., Hawkes, Peter G. & Janda, Milan, 2025, Ant systematics: past, present, and future, pp. 1-42 in Insect Systematics and Diversity 9 (4) on page 3, DOI: 10.1093/isd/ixaf025, http://zenodo.org/record/20503450