Project overview

Project progress

This project will provide information on one of Australia’s most iconic groups of animals, the ants. Ants are exceptionally diverse and occur throughout Australia, often in very high densities. While all ants are being studied, special emphasis is being placed on the genera Camponotus, Iridomyrmex and Monomorium, which are some of the most species rich, ecologically important, abundant and taxonomically challenging groups of Australian ants.

Challenges

Ants are one of the most abundant and obvious terrestrial animal groups in Australia and yet they are biologically and taxonomically very poorly understood. This missing information is essential for conservation agencies and other organizations working in the areas of conservation priority setting, planning, monitoring, and management. This project provides a broad range of high quality and accurate biological data in the most efficient and rapid way possible.

Seeking solutions

This project uses a broad range of scientific methods to increase our understanding and appreciation of these ubiquitous insects. These methods include both traditional morphological approaches as well as cutting-edge molecular methods. Combined, these methods provide the tools necessary to increase our understanding of these important invertebrates.

Benefits

By providing tools for identification and information on general and specific biology, this project will allow ants to contribute to a wide range of studies from biodiversity surveys and ecological monitoring projects to studies of climate change and evolution.

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Project progress

Jan 2010	1.1: Camponotus We are establishing whether the very large ant genus, Camponotus, and its sub-genera are monophyletic groups and how they relate to each other and other closely related formicine ant genera.
Jan 2010	1.2: Monomorium The primary focus during this period has been on data quality and report generation. Data has been checked for numerous classes of errors and these errors corrected.
Jan 2010	1.3: Iridomyrmex The morphological analysis for the entire genus has been completed and a manuscript based on this data is undergoing an external review process.
May 2009	1.1: Camponotus Sampling and sequencing work has been extended to include the majority of the Australian species (ca. 50) and species from other continents covering a range of target subgenera (ca. 50).
May 2009	1.2: Monomorium Determining species boundaries within Monomorium ants.
May 2009	1.3: Iridomyrmex Taxonomic research on the ant genus Iridomyrmex has revealed that the group contains approximately 80 species, 35 of which are new to science.
Oct 2008	1.3: Systematics of the large and diverse ant genus Iridomyrmex  Ants are everywhere and one particularly prolific group of Australian ants is the genus Iridomyrmex, familiar to many Australians because it contains the meat ants.

 

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