Crematogaster is a widespread, global, and very species-rich ant genus within the largest subfamily of ants, the Myrmicinae. Similar to most ant taxa, the group reaches its highest diversity and abundance in tropical and subtropical habitats across both the Neotropical and the Paleotropical regions. Crematogaster is also fairly well represented in warmer temperate climates of the southern Holarctic region and Australia. These ants usually are a conspicuous and abundant component of the ant communities in forest and savannah habitats and have many interesting interactions with other ants, insects, or plants. The natural history of most species has been poorly studied because of high species diversity paired with difficult species-level identification. Almost 500 species have been described and about 270 valid subspecies names exist at present, putting Crematogaster on the top five list of most species-rich ant genera (together with Pheidole, Camponotus, Tetramorium, and Temnothorax)....
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Blaimer, B.B. (2020). Crematogaster. In: Starr, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Social Insects. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90306-4_159-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90306-4_159-1
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