Key to the ant genera of Borneo in English and Malay

Kalsum Mohd Yusah and I have created an updated Key to the Ant Genera of Borneo, based on the keys of Yoshiaki Hashimoto (link to original keys). This has been translated into Malay in order to encourage the development of ant identification skills and promote knowledge of ant biodiversity locally. We have also assembled a glossary of morphological terms. Note that these are under ongoing development. If you have any feedback please contact me at tmfayle@gmail.com

References

Fayle T.M. Yusah K.M. & Hashimoto Y. (2014) Key to the Ant Genera of Borneo in English and Malay. [PDF]

Fayle T.M. Yusah K.M. & Hashimoto Y. (2014) Glossary of ant morphology in English and Malay [PDF]

Peer reviewed publications, theses and other articles citing use of the key (58 citations to April 2025)

Shakur, M.A., Bagchi, S., Baidya, P., Page, N.V. and Talukdar, G., 2025. Tropical Ant Communities Under Agroforestry Can Be Diverse but Lack Trait-and-Environment Associations. Biotropica, 57(3), p.e70035.

De Wint, F.C., Oorts, D., Branstetter, M.G., De Graaf, D., Dekoninck, W., Jocque, M., Martin, T.E., Sudworth, J., Van Osselaer, R. and Hamer, M.T., (2024). Ants in the clouds: A preliminary checklist of the ant (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) fauna of a Honduran cloud forest ecosystem, featuring a key to country genera. Neotropical Biology and Conservation, 19: 107-135.

Asmah S., Soo C.L., Fayle T.M. & Yusah, K.M. (2023) Diversity and composition of arboreal ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in relation to experimental forest fragmentation in Kalabakan, Sabah. Malayan Nature Journal 75: 563–574

Alcantara, M.J.M., Modi, S., Ling, T.C., Monkai, J., He, X.U., Huang, S. and Nakamura, A., 2022. Impacts of rubber plantations on community assembly of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): a case study from monsoonal tropics of Xishuangbanna, southwest China. North-Western Journal of Zoology, 18: 1-8.

Tuma J., Frouz J., Veselá H., Krivohlavý F. & Fayle T.M. (2022) The impacts of tropical mound-building social insects on soil properties vary across taxa and with habitat degradation. Applied Soil Ecology 179: 104576.

Xing S., Hood A.S.C., Dial R.J. & Fayle T.M. (2022) Species turnover in ant assemblages is greater horizontally than vertically in the world's tallest tropical forest. Ecology and Evolution 12:e9158.

Muhammad, A.A., Abdullah, N.A., Ya, Z. and Mansor, M.S. (2022) Diversity and Composition of Tropical Metropolitan ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): An Indicator to Urban Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health. Preprint https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-707107/v1

Shakur MA (2021) Richness and compositional responses of ants to land use change. Masters thesis, Saurashtra University

Koid Q-A, Wong R.Y, Gabriel G, Yusah K.M. (2021) Ant Community Structure in Secondary Logged Forest of Malua Forest Reserve, Sabah, Borneo. Journal of Tropical Biology and Conservation 8: 305-319.

Houadria, M. and Menzel, F. (2021) Digging deeper into the ecology of subterranean ants: Diversity and niche partitioning across two continents. Diversity, 13(2), p.53.

Kreider, J. J., Chen, T.-W., Hartke, T. R., Buchori, D., Hidayat, P., Nazarreta, R., Scheu, S., and Drescher, J. (2021). Rainforest conversion to monocultures favors generalist ants with large colonies. Ecosphere 12( 8):e03717.

M N Rizqulloh, J Drescher, T R Hartke, A Potapov, S Scheu, P Hidayat, R Widyastuti (2021) Effects of rainforest transformation to monoculture cash crops on soil living ants (Formicidae) in Jambi Province, Sumatra, Indonesia IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci. 771 012031

Law SJ, Bishop TR, Eggleton P, Griffiths H, Ashton L, & Parr C. (2020) Darker ants dominate the canopy: Testing macroecological hypotheses for patterns in colour along a microclimatic gradient. Journal of Animal Ecology 89: 347– 359

Nazarreta R, Hartke TR, Hidayat P, Scheu S, Buchori D, Drescher J. (2020) Rainforest conversion to smallholder plantations of rubber or oil palm leads to species loss and community shifts in canopy ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Myrmecological News 30: 175-186

Law, S. J., & Parr C. (2020) Numerically dominant species drive patterns in resource use along a vertical gradient in tropical ant assemblages. Biotropica 52.1: 101-112.

Tuma J. (2020) The effect of tropical land use change on soildwelling ants and termites, their interaction and on ecosystem processes they affect. PhD Thesis, University of South Bohemia.

Alcantara M.J.M., Modi S., Ling T.C., Monkai J., Xu H., Huang S. & Nakamura A. (2019) Differences in geographic distribution of ant species (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) between forests and rubber plantations: a case study in Xishuangbanna, China, and a global meta-analysis. Myrmecological News 29: 135-145

Ahmad Sah H.H., Barthelmess T. & Grafe T.U. (2019) Feeding Ecology of a Tropical Litter-Dwelling Frog, Chaperina fusca (Microhylidae) from Borneo. Journal of Herpetology 53: 237-244.

Suwarno A., van der Meer P.J., Beaujon N., Loong Y.K., Arifin Y.F., Rachmanadi D., Hill J.K., Reynolds G. & Lucey J.M. (2018) Testing the impact of RSPO HCV areas in retaining biodiversity and carbon stocks in the oil palm landscape: Initial results from the first phase of field sampling. A technical report by the SEnSOR programme

Hurst, J. (2018) Fluctuating Asymmetry as an indicator of thermal stress in tropical ants. Masters thesis, Imperial College London.

Philip A.J., Fayle T.M. & Yusah K.M. (2018) Selectively logging old growth rain forest twice changes canopy ant species composition, while conversion to oil palm changes composition and reduces species richness and diversity. Journal of Tropical Biology and Conservation 15: 139–154

Philip A.J. (2018) The effects of logging, forest fragmentation and conversion to oil palm plantation on vertical stratification of ant communities. MPhil thesis, Universiti Malaysia Sabah.

Gray R.E.J., Ewers R.M., Boyle M.J.W., Chung A.Y.C. & Gill R.J. (2018) Effect of tropical forest disturbance on the competitive interactions within a diverse ant community. Scientific Reports 8: 5131

Kimber A., & Eggleton P. (2018). Strong but taxon-specific responses of termites and wood-nesting ants to forest regeneration in Borneo. Biotropica 50: 266-273.

Harazawa H. (2017) Altitudinal stratification of tropical ants and their thermal tolerance limits. MRes thesis (Imperial College London, UK)

Helms I.V. J.A., Helms, S.A., Fawzi N.I., Tarjudin & Xaverius F. (2017) Ant community of an Acacia mangium forest in Indonesian Borneo. Serangga 22: 147-159

Denmead L.H., Darras K., Clough Y., Diaz P., Grass I, Hoffmann M.P., Nurdiansyah F., Fardiansah R. & Tscharntke T. (2017) The role of ants, birds and bats for ecosystem functions and yield in oil palm plantations. Ecology 98: 1945-1956

Barnes A.D., Allen K., Kreft H., Corre M.D., Jochum M., Veldkamp E., Clough Y., Daniel R., Darras K., Denmead L.H. & Haneda N.F. (2017) Direct and cascading impacts of tropical land-use change on multi-trophic biodiversity. Nature Ecology & Evolution 1: 1511–1519

Gray R.E.J. (2016) Effect of tropical forest disturbance on the competitive interactions within ant communities. MRes thesis (Imperial College London, UK)

Jia En, S (2016) Spillover of an ant-plant mutualism from forest into oil palm plantation in Sabah, Borneo. BSc thesis, University Malaysia Sabah.

Darras KFA (2016) Bird Diversity, Functions and Services across Indonesian Land-use Systems. PhD thesis Georg-August Universität Göttingen.

Pandhani R.D., Widhiono I & Basuki E. (2016) Keragaman semut (Formicidae) pada lahan organik hasil konversi dan lahan anorganik di desa Nyalembeng, Pemalang. Student thesis. Fakultas Biologi Universitas Jenderal Soedirman, Purwokerto, Indonesia.

Gray C.L. Simmons B.I., Fayle T.M., Mann D.J. & Slade, E.M. (2016) Are riparian forest reserves sources of invertebrate biodiversity spillover and associated ecosystem functions in oil palm landscapes? Biological Conservation 194: 176–183

Lane Shaw I. (2016) Evaluating an experimental method for studying twig-dwelling ant communities. Masters Thesis. (Imperial College London, UK).

Nurdiansyah F. (2016) Local and landscape management of biological pest control in oil palm plantations. PhD thesis (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany)

Denmead L.H. (2016) Ant diversity, function and services across tropical land-use systems in Indonesia. PhD thesis (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany)

Vodkaman (2016) Web article on JungleDragon website "Ponerinae Harpegnathos venator" https://www.jungledragon.com/image/37687/ponerinae_harpegnathos_venator.html

Izwan N. & Amirrudin B.A. (2015) Estimating ant diversity of Tasek Bera Ramsar site, Pahang, Peninsular Malaysia. Journal of Wildlife and Parks 30 xx-xx

Barnes A.D. (2015) Land-use impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning of complex multitrophic communities. PhD thesis (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany)

Prescott G.W., Edwards D.P. & Foster W.A. (2015) Retaining biodiversity in intensive farmland: epiphyte removal in oil palm plantations does not affect yield. Ecology and Evolution 5: 1944–1954

Bell T.E.M. (2015) Changes in ant communities across a tropical rainforest landscape which includes old growth and twice-logged areas in Sabah, Malaysia. MRes thesis (Imperial College London, UK)

Fayle T.M., Edwards D.P., Foster W.A., Yusah K.M. & Turner E.C. (2015) An ant-plant by-product mutualism is robust to selective logging of rain forest and conversion to oil palm plantation. Oecologia 178: 441–450

Gray C., Lewis O., Chung A.Y. & Fayle T.M. (2015) Riparian reserves within oil palm plantations conserve logged forest leaf litter ant communities and maintain associated scavenging rates. Journal of Applied Ecology 52: 31-40

Kimber A. (2015). The effects of habitat degradation on ant and termite communities in deadwood in Sabah, Borneo. MSc thesis (Imperial College London, UK)

Sie Teng, H (2015) Komuniti semut kanopi dan semut duan sarap di hutam berfragmen di Kalakan, Tawau, Sabah. BSc Thesis, Universiti Malaysia Sabah

Zi Shang, L. (2015) Taburan semut daun di bebarapa altitud ketinggian di Gunung Kinabalu dan perbezaan komuniti semut selepas 19 tahun. BSc Thesis, Universiti Malaysia Sabah

Yan Theng, W. (2015) Semut sebagai pengantara dalam kadar pengagihan semula nutrien di hutan primer dan hutan berfragmen, Tawau, Sabah. BSc Thesis, Universiti Malaysia Sabah

Shi Sang, Y (2015) Taburan semut duan sarap di beberapa altitud ketinggian di Gunung Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysian. BSc Thesis, Universiti Malaysia Sabah.

Konopik O. (2014) The impact of logging and conversion to oil palm plantation on Bornean stream-dependent frogs and their role as meso-predators. PhD Thesis (University of Würzburg, Germany)

Gray C. L. (2014) Riparian reserves in oil palm plantations: biodiversity, ecological processes and ecosystem services. DPhil Thesis (University of Oxford, UK)

Yusah K.M. & Fayle T. M. (2014) The first record of a fly of the family Milichiidae (Diptera) interacting with an ant of the genus Polyrhachis Smith, 1857 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Biodiversity Data Journal 2: e4168

Radilika Chandra M. D. (2014) Distribusi dan kemelimpahan komunitas hewan tanah di hutan pegunungan kamojang Jawa berat. Essay (Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia)

Konopik O., Gray C., Grafe T.U., Steffan-Dewenter I. & Fayle T.M. (2014) From rain forest to oil palm plantations: shifts in predator population and prey communities, but resilient interactions. Global Ecology and Conservation 2: 385–394

Philip A.J. (2014) Kesan fragmentasi hutan sekunder terhadap komuniti semut kanopi dan semut daun sarap di Kalabakan, Tawau, Sabah. BSc Thesis, Universit Malaysia Sabah

Woodcock P., Edwards D.P., Newton R.J., Khen V.K., Bottrell S.H. & Hamer K.C. (2013) Impacts of intensive logging on the trophic organisation of ant communities in a biodiversity hotspot. PLoS ONE 8: e60756

Soh Jia Yu, E. (2013) Ant Diversity in Urban Matrices of Kent Ridge. Undergraduate project (National University of Singapore)

Schreven S. (2013) Ant community composition in relation to forest disturbance in a Bornean tropical peat swamp forest. MSc Thesis (Wageningen University, Netherlands)

Bishop T.R. (2012) Functional diversity and community assembly patterns in ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) communities across a forest disturbance gradient in Sabah, Malaysia. MRes Thesis (Imperial College London, UK)