The evolution of myrmicine ants: phylogeny and biogeography of a hyperdiverse ant clade (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

This study investigates the evolutionary history of a hyperdiverse clade, the ant subfamily M yrmicinae ( H ymenoptera: F ormicidae), based on analyses of a data matrix comprising 251 species and 11 nuclear gene fragments. Under both maximum likelihood and B ayesian methods of inference, we recover a robust phylogeny that reveals six major clades of M yrmicinae, here treated as newly defined tribes and occurring as a pectinate series: M...