The study that focuses on ants is known as Myrmecology. The word comes from the Greek mymex (ant) and logos (study). Early myrmecologists, the scientists studying Myrmecology, considered ant society to be the ideal one for humanity to emulate, and many problems could be solved by studying them. Ants are some of the oldest creatures, and their history goes back way beyond that of even dinosaurs.

Ants are the model of choice for studying evolution of social systems as well as how they can affect ecosystems in mass. Their complex and different forms of eusociality (highest level of social organization in the animal kingdom) is why they are the model of choice for studying evolution of social systems. This information has led to increased information in biodiversity and conservation.

Ant colonies have also recently been studied to help advance machine learning and complex interactive networks, as well as various other computing fields. Because they work in such a consistent pattern, and constantly evolve based on their environments, they are instrumental to learning how to develop artificial intelligence.

Myrmecology's origins started in the 19^th century and William Morton Wheeler coined the term. While there is evidence of interest in ants stemming back to ancient folk times, the earliest scientific study of ants was by Auguste Forel, a Swiss psychologist who was interested in instinct, learning, and society in a broad scale.

In 1874, Forel would write the book Les fourmis de la Suisse, which was all about the study of ants in Switzerland. His studies were wide with ants, including trying to mix species into a single colony and noting polydomy (multiple egg laying queens) and monodomy (singular egg laying queens), and would compare this to nations.

Wheeler would go on after Forel to look at ants in a completely different way as far as their social organization goes. In 1910, he would deliver a lecture at Woods Hole that would highlight the ant colony as a single organism. This idea would lead to the idea of superorganisms. He considered the sharing of food within a colony to be fundamental to a colony's success. He would observe this by dying the food given to ants and observing where it would go within the colony.

Horace Donisthorpe would advance Myrmecology even farther, working mostly on the systematics of ants. This principle would be shared throughout all the world until further advances in biology were made. With the rise of genetics, idea in the study of behaviors in animals (ethology) and how it evolved would lead to many new schools of thought. An example of this is E. O. Wilson, whose field sociobiology relies heavily on the studies of Myrmecology.

Further advances in Myrmecology were few, but with deeper understanding into ants we may be able to help humanity further itself. A perfect utopian society is the goal of many, and ants may showcase the perfect way for humanity to achieve that goal.

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