Putting final touches on a 400 species list for a book I'm writing about ants, for the general public, worldwide coverage.
I welcome suggestions for species I should include. Whittling 15,000 species down to only a few hundred is harder than it looks, because of course it should have ALL THE ANTS.
Gotta have a twig ant like Pseudomyrmex pallidus.
A fugly ant: Apterostigma
Dorymyrmex bureni and Camponotus pennsylvanicus are wonderful common ants, more than meets the eye.
Strobe ants from Australia.
Cataglyphis bombycina, the sliver ant is pretty famous and there are a lot of good books about them.
Camponotus fulvopilosus (or one of the other hairy ants)
Do I need to mention Dinomyrmex gigas?
Also check out this poster:
https://www.tumblr.com/futurebird/750321144832393216/more-amazing-ant-art?source=share
And here is a deeper cut: Cataglyphis lutea
Been curious about this ant for years but there is very little written about them despite their striking appearance and behavioral quirks.
Deep cut ant species for hipsters only.
Cataglyphis lutea? You probably haven't heard of that species but it's OK, you need to really like ants to know about Cataglyphis lutea.
(Do you have any "deep cut" species? Against my better judgement I won't restrict this to ants.
But NO BACKBONES.)
@alexwild
what kind of a book?
At 400 species, it seems you would only get about 1 page per species, which doesn't seem like a lot of space for species.
When renowned British geneticist J. B. S. Haldane was asked what could be inferred about God from a study of his works, Haldane replied, “An inordinate fondness for beetles.” With 350,000 known species, and scientific estimates that millions more have yet to be identified, their abundance is indisputable as is their variety. They range from the delightful summer firefly to the one-hundred-gram Goliath beetle. Beetles offer a dazzling array of shapes, sizes, and colors that entice scientists and collectors across the globe.The Book of Beetles celebrates the beauty and diversity of this marvelous insect. Six hundred significant beetle species are covered, with each entry featuring a distribution map, basic biology, conservation status, and information on cultural and economic significance. Full-color photos show the beetles both at their actual size and enlarged to show details, such as the sextet of spots that distinguish the six-spotted tiger beetle or the jagged ridges of the giant-jawed sawyer beetle. Based in the most up-to-date science and accessibly written, the descriptive text will appeal to researchers and armchair coleopterists alike. The humble beetle continues to grow in popularity, taking center stage in biodiversity studies, sustainable agriculture programs, and even the dining rooms of adventurous and eco-conscious chefs. The Book of Beetles is certain to become the authoritative reference on these remarkably adaptable and beautiful creatures.
@sashin @futurebird @alexwild @llewelly
Nobody expects the ant inquisition 
I’d assume you have an Acropyga it’s such a fascinating genus.
Basiceros tumucumaquensis (or at least one dirt ant)
Podomyrma adelaidae (muscle woman ant)
Social hybridogenesis in ants (at least two species do this, and it was the biggest ant news of the year. )
Yes, all tremendous suggestions. I've been wavering between Basiceros, which is prettier, and Octostruma, which is more commonly encountered, for one of the dirt ants. Definitely including Eurhopalothrix (and the African Calyptomyrmex).
Podomyrma adelaidae is a shoe-in. Gorgeous ant.
As for weird social systems, I've got Pogo barbatus/rugosus, Mycocepurus smithi, Wasmannia, and Messor iberica. Also one of the ones with creepy males, like Cardiocondyla or Hypoponera opacior.
Hawaii's ants (none of which are native) are my schtick, and I look forward to reading what you have to say about the ones that make the cut.
I gave a talk recently in which I took @futurebird 's Ant-thology theme to an extreme. Here is my cover slide along with a list of the ants most commonly collected on Maui by my agency -- hopefully Hawaii's most common ants can fit into your book.
@etnom @futurebird Huh. Pheidole fervens hasn't been on my radar for this project, in spite of being your most common ant. This is useful.
Lots of tramp species in my list, but I'm having to make some choices so they don't overwhelm the rest.
Despite the graph I shared Pheidole megacephala is actually far more widespread here. I should have mentioned that our protocols create biases in the data as we are mostly surveying locations where we fear Wasmannia auropunctata may be lurking.
P. fervens arrived in Hawaii in the 1960s and has been on Maui since ~2000. It absolutely dominates the wet windward shore of east Maui where it presumably has supplanted megacephala. I suspect it hasn't finished spreading here.
In Europe, its invasiveness marks it out as being of particular interest. Highly successful and effective.
If the book is slanted towards topical then it is arguably a candidate.
If it is intended primarily as a representative guide, then a type species is probably more appropriate.
Is the focus taxonomy or 'showcase'?
Second that. The males of Stigmatomma denticulatum look like distracted wasps, and minute:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/88809662
@Adria I've got a few of these. The challenge with the weird ones is, there is a looooooooong tail of those, most of them rare. So not all can make the cut, and I'm sometimes weighing species that are more represented on iNat, with ones that aren't there at all but have a published literature about their behavior.
Currently have all of those, but not Metapone. Might consider adding it, though.
I just hope the book will collect examples of conflict between ants, and the aftermath, like carrying dead enemies hanging from one's antennae, jaws firmly clasped:
Cataglyphis nodus, from Croatia
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/92084232
#iNaturalist #ants #Hymenoptera #entomology
@albertcardona Yes! There will be some of that in the biology chapters, though abbreviated, as 4/5 of the book is to be a directory of species.
Cataglyphis nodus is a marginal species on my list; common-ish, but there are a ton of species in that genus and I've not made decisions about the final cut.
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