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It is very appropriate that the first non-Japanese ants featured in the work of the Japanese Ant Database Group should be Australian. The first plans for establishment of the group, and development of its successful Japanese Ant Photo Image Database, were laid in Australia, in discussions between Drs Hirotami Imai, Masao Kubota, Robert Taylor and Kazuo Ogata, while researching the genetics and taxonomy of the exceptional Australian bulldog and Jack-jumper ants of the genus Myrmecia.
We offer here a set of photo images, similar to those of the Japanese photo image database, covering all known Australian ant genera. In some cases several species are featured, and we aim to add more in future. There is also an image gallery containing many general field and laboratory phographs of Australian ants.
A synonymic catalogue of the more than 1,350 named ant species recorded from Australia and its dependencies, Norfolk Island, Lord Howe Island and Christmas Island is included. This can be accessed in various ways, and is linked by single keystrokes to a comprehensive bibliography of Australian ant systematics. Two versions of the catalogue and bibliography are offered as free downloads to registered users, one as printable PDF files, the other as searchable Microsoft "Word" files, complete with a macro program, which enables the extraction of smaller topical lists from the master checklist. The master checklist and bibliography will be regularly updated to keep the site current.
External links to other sites featuring Australian myrmecology are included, notably to the Australian Ants Online site maintained by Stephen O Shattuck and Natalie Barnett at CSIRO Division of Entomology, Canberra.
R.W Taylor.