myrmecology

Myrmecology (; from Greek: , myrmex, "ant" and λόγος, logos, "study") is the scientific study of ants, a branch of entomology. Some early myrmecologists considered ant society as the ideal form of society and sought to find solutions to human problems by studying them . Ants continue to be a model of choice for the study of questions on the evolution of social systems because of their complex and varied forms of eusociality. Their diversity and prominence in ecosystems also has made them important components in the study of biodiversity and conservation. Recently, ant colonies also are being studied and modeled in machine learning, complex interactive networks, stochasticity of encounter and interaction networks, parallel computing, and other computing fields.