From subarctic tundra to equatorial rainforest, deep in the soil and at the tip of the highest tree, ants are found the world over. This book offers a definitive guide for identifying these insects, by providing identification keys to all the living ant subfamilies and genera, presented in alphabetical order and separated by zoogeographical region. Designed for professional and amateur myrmecologiasts alike, this guide also includes information about the function and use of identification keys, instructions for preparing specimens for examination, and an illustrated glossary of morphological terms. Over 500 scanning electron microscope photographs illustrate the taxonomic keys. Each subfamily is introduced with a diagnosis of the group, followed by synoptic classifications of all genera within each subfamily, notes on broad distribution and a list of references to all species-rank publications useful to identification. The book also contains a short summary of the extinct subfamilies and a checklist of every name ever proposed in the classification of ants, from the rank of family down to subgenus, showing the current status and usage of each.