Ants of the World

Every ant tells a story. AntWeb provides tools for exploring the diversity and identification of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae).

These tools have been developed to encourage the study of ants, to facilitate the use of ants in inventory and monitoring programs, and to provide ant taxonomists with access to images of type specimens.

AntWeb contains specimen-level information on ant faunas throughout the world and global coverage of all known ant species.

AntWeb Statistics

202907 specimens
14095 extant valid taxa
10281 specimens imaged
4502 species imaged

Contribute to AntWeb

Many curators already contribute to AntWeb - would you like to join us? Curators can edit the home page of the geographic section they curate, upload specimen data and authority files, and control a number of other aspects of their project.

If you would like to join us, contact us at - antweb@calacademy.org.

Users of Google Earth can now plot all the ants known to AntWeb on a 3-dimensional interactive globe of satellite images. Learn more about putting AntWeb on Google Earth.

We at AntWeb have been busy taking photos of many of the world's great ant collections. Visit the Antweb World Ant Collection to see the collections and get information about where they are housed.

Bay Area Ants Survey
The 11-county Bay Area is home to more 100 distinct types of ant species. Visit AntWeb's Bay Area Ant Survey to find out how to become a Citizen Naturalist and help discover and document the native and invasive ants in the Bay Area. Learn about the ants in your backyard, schools and local Bay Area parks.

Enroll in Ant Course
Ant Course is a workshop designed primarily for systematists, ecologists, behaviorists, conservation biologists, and other biologists whose research responsibilities require a greater understanding of ant taxonomy and field research techniques. Emphasis is on the evolution, classification and identification of ant genera. Read More »