List of ant subfamilies

Ants (family Formicidae in the order Hymenoptera) are the most species-rich of all social insects, with more than 12,000 described species and many others awaiting description. Formicidae is divided into 21 subfamilies, of which 17 contain extant taxa, while four are exclusively fossil. Ants have come to occupy virtually all major terrestrial habitats, with the exception of tundra and cold ever-wet forests. They display a wide range of social behaviors, foraging habits and associations with other organisms, which has generated scientific and public interest.

Beginning in the 1990s, molecular (DNA sequence) data have come to play a central role in attempts to reconstruct the ant "tree of life". Molecular phylogenetic analyses based on multiple nuclear genes have yielded robust results that reinforce some preexisting views but overturn others – and suggest that there has been considerable morphological convergence among some ant lineages. Molecular data provide very strong support for a novel group, the "formicoid clade", not revealed by previous morphological work. This clade comprises 9 of the 16 extant ant subfamilies and about 90% of all described ant species. Formicoids include such widespread and species-rich subfamilies as Myrmicinae, Formicinae and Dolichoderinae, as well as the army ants (Dorylinae). Non-formicoids comprise five "poneroid" subfamilies (Agroecomyrmecinae, Amblyoponinae, Paraponerinae, Ponerinae, and Proceratiinae), Leptanillinae, about which little is known, and Martialinae, the most recently discovered subfamily. Relationships among these remaining seven subfamilies are less well resolved. A recent study (2011) places Leptanillinae as a sister group to all other ants, with Martialinae, the poneroids and formicoids forming a clade.

...
Wikipedia