Fig. 1.

A schematic of the evolution of ants (Formicidae) at the subfamily level. Minor subfamilies are omitted. The four most diverse, abundant, and geographically widespread living subfamilies are bold-faced. The “dorylomorphs” are driver and army ants (Dorylinae) and an array of other, smaller subfamilies related to them. The schematic is based on our interpretation of the consensus of recent phylogenetic reconstructions (8, 9, 23–26). The Armaniidae were a Cretaceous sister group of the Formicidae that were believed not to be social; i.e., they had no anatomically distinct worker class (7).