The ants of Africa are an under appreciated resource for anyone wishing to know more of how invertebrate populations are structured and determined. This profusely illustrated "electronic encyclopaedia" brings together a very wide range of information from the research efforts of many individuals and teams. A special effort has been made to include material from non-English sources, with over 500 taxonomic papers reviewed. The web format allows the site to be updated as fresh information becomes available.

Text Chapters cover Geography & History; Ant Mosaics; Economic Importance of Ants; Biodiversity and Niches; and, Taxonomy.

Developed over a period of ten years, the site has an almost complete Catalogue of all named species. As at November 2007, the total comes to 1901 species, of which a few are unnamed but briefly described and/or illustrated. Each species has its own webpage and for all there are text entries giving subspecies, junior synonyms and other names, with authorities. Also given are type locations, other geographical information and notes on bionomics. There are reports of 238 unnamed "forms" (from 90 genera and 13 subfamilies).

Clickable illustrated Keys, many newly developed, are given to aid identification from almost all the genera. For all but two species, one known only from the male, the original or translated descriptions are given either in the main text or on linked "TAXONOMY" cards; of which there are around 5000, covering the subspecies and synonyms as well as the type species. In constructing the keys, many of the original descriptions have had to be translated from non-English sources, most commonly French but also German and Italian, with a few from Latin. For each species the known distribution is summarised on a "DISTRIBUTION" card. There are drawings or photographs (787) of all but 411 of the species. Of the photographs, 434 are original to this site; and, 171 of the drawings were by the site author. For five species known images remain unaccessed but of those four now have photographs.

Over 4000 illustrations are incorporated. A conspectus, or summary catalogue in spreadsheet format (Excel 2003), lists all the species, type locations, first publication dates and authors. Availability of descriptions, drawings and photographs also are given. Each entry is linked to the appropriate page in the main catalogue. A separate worksheet covers the forms listed in the literature but not identifiable. A second catalogue gives the known distribution for all 42 countries, with over 8600 records.

The whole text is extensively linked, with indexing of over 3700 specific names (subspecies, junior synonyms, varieties, etc.), and comprehensive references to both modern and historic literature. Every species is linked to the appropriate page in the Hymenoptera Name Server at Ohio State University, in conjunction with www.Antbase.org.