ARS | Publication request: THE FORMIS ANT BIBLIOGRAPHY: A WINDOW ON THE WORLD'S ANT LITERATURE AND A DOOR INTO MYRMECOLOGY'S FUTURE

Submitted to: International Union for the Study of Social Insects Congress
Publication Type: Proceedings/Symposium
Publication Acceptance Date: April 23, 2002
Publication Date: August 15, 2002
Citation: Porter, S.D., Wojcik, D.P. 2002. The Formis Ant Bibliography: A Window on the World's Ant Literature and a Door into Myrmecology's Future. International Union for the Study of Social Insects Congress. p. 88.

Technical Abstract: FORMIS 2001 is a composite of several ant literature databases. It contains citations for a large fraction of the world's ant literature (over 30,000 references). It can be downloaded or searched online: http://cmave.usda.ufl.edu/~formis/. General contributions include: UCD Ant Literature Database (about 4000 citations), AGRICOLA (about 8000 citations), Biblio Fourmis (about 1600 citations), references used in The Ants (about 2000 citations), Baroni Urbani Bibliography (almost 1000 citations). Specialty databases include: Fire Ant Literature Database (about 2700 citations), Comprehensive Leaf Cutting Ant Bibliography (about 3000 citations), Pharaoh Ant Bibliography (about 1000 citations), Santschi Ant Bibliography (210 citations), RFORMICA- Russian Wood Ant Literature Database (almost 800 citations), and ANTBIB, A bibliography of ant systematics (about 8,000 citations). An inspection of FORMIS reveals that more that half of all ant literature has been published since E. O. Wilson's book Insect Societies was published in 1971. During the 1990s the rate was over 700 papers per year. Leaf cutting ants and fire ants are among the most-studied groups of ants with about 3,500 citations each. Subscription databases such as BIOSIS and the Web of Science are more current, but FORMIS is free, more thoroughly keyworded, and by far the best source for papers published before 1970. As we move into the new millennium, FORMIS provides a window on myrmecology's past and a doorway into its future.