Ants are among Australia's most familiar and conspicuous insect groups, and play many vital roles in the functioning of our ecosystems. The Ants of Southern Australia is the first treatment of Australia's Bassian ant fauna: those species characteristic of cool and wet southern Australia. It enables students, amateur naturalists, and professional entomologists and ecologists to identify almost all the genera and major species and species – groups occurring in the region. The Ants of Southern Australia focuses on southern and eastern Victoria, dealing with more than one hundred species and species – groups from forty genera. Eighty of the taxa are illustrated with line drawings. The Ants of Southern Australia features simple diagnostic keys to, and brief notes on, all the taxa covered. It also has introductory sections on the general biology and community ecology of Australian ants, and an extensive bibliography.