This study is divided into two parts: first, an inventory of the ant fauna of two plateaus in Eastern Suriname and, second, a series of taxonomical studies of ant genera belonging to the ant tribes Attini and Dacetini, and the ant subfamily Proceratiinae for the Neotropics. The first part describes the results of a rapid assessment program survey of the leaf-litter ant fauna that was conducted in Eastern Suriname with the goal of informing conservation decisions by mining companies, governments, and individuals. The second part deals with descriptions of three new species and 15 new distributional records for species in the genera Pyramica, Strumigenys, and Acanthognathus (Formicidae: Dacetini) for Panama and Guyana; a review of the ant subfamily Proceratiinae for Colombia; and the descriptions of three remarkable new species in the fungus-growing ant genus Myrmicocrypta (Formicidae: Attini) from Brazil.