The giant Amazonian ants of the genus Dinoponera Roger 1861 have been revised several times since their discovery in 1833 by Perty. Despite these numerous works much has been left undiscovered. Our evaluation of specimens from world collections has produced numerous range extensions and a description of the male Dinoponera longipes Emery 1901, adding to the validity of the species D. longipes. In spite of the large (sometimes 3 cm) size of these ants, the characters used to evaluate species are relatively ambiguous. Nevertheless, we retain the six established species and present a revised key to the workers and known males of Dinoponera, in addition to updated distribution maps, a preliminary phylogenetic tree based upon morphological characters, and inferences on the biogeography of the genus.