 Molecular phylogenetic analyses based on multiple nuclear genes have yielded robust results that reinforce some preexisting views but overturn others – and suggest that there has been considerable morphological convergence among some ant lineages.Molecular data provide very strong support for a novel group, the "formicoid clade", not revealed by previous morphological work.This clade comprises 9 of the 16 extant ant subfamilies and about 90% of all described ant species.