Taxonomic Changes - 2014

The year 2014 is proving to be exceptional for ant taxonomy. A number of papers have appeared which significantly change our understanding of the relationships among ants, with resulting changes in their classification. A number of subfamilies and genera have merged (for example subfamilies related to Dorylinae and genera related to Pheidole and Temnothorax) while several genera have been split up (for example Monomorium and Pachycondyla). These changes occur mainly in three subfamilies, Dorylinae, Myrmicinae and Ponerinae.

Below is a summary of recent changes to existing species. See Taxa Described in 2014 for newly described species. For further details see the original publications and individual species pages.

Dorylinae

 * [[Media:Brady et al 2014.pdf|Brady, S. G.; Fisher, B. L.; Schultz, T. R.; Ward, P. S. 2014. The rise of army ants and their relatives: diversification of specialized predatory doryline ants. BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:93, 14 pp. (doi:10.1186/1471-2148-14-93).]]

Myrmicinae

 * Bolton, B. & Fisher, B.L. 2014. The Madagascan endemic myrmicine ants related to Eutetramorium (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): taxonomy of the genera Eutetramorium Emery, Malagidris nom. n., Myrmisaraka gen. n., Royidris gen. n., and Vitsika gen. n. Zootaxa 3791, 1–99.
 * Ward, P.S., Brady, S.G., Fisher, B.L. & Schultz, T.R. 2014. The evolution of myrmicine ants: phylogeny and biogeography of a hyperdiverse ant clade (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Systematic Entomology, DOI: 10.1111/syen.12090.

Ponerinae

 * Schmidt, C.A. & Shattuck, S.O. 2014. The higher classification of the ant subfamily Ponerinae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), with a review of ponerine ecology and behavior. Zootaxa. 3817, 1–242 (doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3817.1.1)