Ants of Madagascar: A Guide to the 62 Genera. Brian Fisher and Christian Peeters have published a wonderful guide to the fascinating Madagascar ant fauna. Brian Fisher began studying ants in Madagascar in 1993 and Christian Peeters in 2004. Madagascar has over 1300 ant species, the result of > 80 million years of isolation from continental Africa and Asia. This guide covers their natural history and ecology, distribution patterns, and how to identify specimens to genera. Two of the most aggressive ant groups found in Africa and Asia, army ants (Aenictus and Dorylus) and arboreal weaver ants (Oecophylla and Polyrhachis) are absent in Madagascar, and this allowed striking radiation of other lineages. You can read more about this guide on the Myrmecological News blog.



A major worker/soldier with swollen abdomen (food storage), minors, and brood of Carebara jajoby (Image by Christian Peeters). An image from the 2018 revision of the Carebara of the Malagasy Region by Azore and Fisher. [1].