The ant fauna of Australia is large and diverse. As of 1999, Australia and its external territories represent 1,275 described taxa (subspecies included) divided into 103 genera and 10 subfamilies.[2] No publication since 1999 has estimated the current diversity of Australia's ant fauna, although it has considerably increased in size as the total amount of subfamilies in Australia today is around twelve. Very few species in the country are known to be invasive.
Australia is home to two-thirds of the worlds subfamilies, one-third of known genera, 15% of all described species, and some genera found in Australia can be found nowhere else or they are found in neighboring countries instead. Australia's ant diversity is smaller than Central America, South America and Southeast Asia, it has roughly the same number of genera and species as the Orient and surpasses the amount of ants known in Europe, North America, Northern Asia and Northern Africa.[3] The state of Queensland has the greatest diversity of ants in the world, with more than 1,400 species known within its borders.[4] The total amount of species known in Australia could possibly be over 6,500, with only one in five ants being described.[5
In 1999, 10 ant subfamilies were known to reside in Australia, but some of these subfamilies were later synonymised under the subfamily Dorylinae.[3][6] Today, 12 subfamilies are known to occur in Australia, including Amblyoponinae, Dolichoderinae, Dorylinae, Ectatomminae, Formicinae, Heteroponerinae, Leptanillinae, Myrmeciinae, Myrmicinae, Ponerinae, Proceratiinae and Pseudomyrmecinae.[7]
The subfamily Myrmicinae is the largest in Australia in terms of both number of genera and species, as well as the subfamily Formicinae, which is also one of the most common subfamily of ants to be encountered.
[9] The subfamily Myrmeciinae consists of two genera which are only found in Australia, with the exception of a single species native to New Caledonia.[10] Only a single species of the subfamily Leptanillinae is known from Australia.[7]
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