Proposed workflow for the high throughput processing of ants from biosecurity samples. Ant samples collected for biosecurity surveillance (A) are processed using a non-destructive DNA extraction (B) and sequenced using Illumina or Nanopore platforms (C), the generated ASVs/OTUs (D) are verified by examining the voucher specimens in order to identify morphospecies (E). Each morphospecies should be databased, deposited in a collection, and accompanied by high-resolution photographs (F), and a DNA sequence should be generated from each specimen (G) and uploaded into a public database in order to constantly improve the publicly available reference sequence data (Green arrow). This figure was created with BioRender.com.