From A to Z About Ant Facts

Some amazing facts you should know about Ants:

  • Ants are a social insect from the family Formicidae. They evolved from wasp-like ancestors around 110-130 million years ago after the rise of flowering plants.
  • Some ants form "supercolonies," massive communities of ants that can stretch for thousands of miles.
  • Of an estimated 22,000 ant species, over 12,500 species have been identified.
  • Antarctica and a few remote islands are the only places with no indigenous ants.
  • It estimated that the total number of ants alive in the world at any one time is between one and ten quadrillion (10,000,000,000,000,000).
  • Army ants may prey on much larger animals such as reptiles, birds, or even small mammals.
  • Ants represent 25 per cent or more of the insect biomass on the planet
  • All the ants on the planet weigh more than all the humans.
  • Ants are believed to contribute up to 25% of the total biomass weight of land based animals. That's about the same as the total biomass of the entire human race, or equivalent to approximately 1 million ants for every human.

      See also: Amazing science facts

  • Ant species range in size from 0.75 mm to 52 mm (0.030 in - 2.0 in).
  • Most ants are black or red in color but some species are green or metallic.
  • Ants can carry 20 times their own body weight. That’s like you lifting a car! They bring leaves, crumbs and dead insects back to the colony to eat.
  • Carpenter ants build nests in logs or even houses. They chew through wood to make the nests. They can cause damage to houses.
  • Red fire ants have a painful sting. They build mounded ant hills.
  • Ants can build small colonies of less than 100 ants through to very large colonies that occupy large areas and contain millions of individual ants.
  • Ants are social insects which form colonies that range in size from a few dozen predatory individuals living in small natural cavities to highly organised colonies which may occupy large territories and consist of millions of individuals. 
  • Ants communicate and cooperate by using chemicals (pheromones) that can alert others to danger or lead them to a promising food source. 
  • Colonies of ants often dividing up labour, but work collectively to solve problems and support the group in a similar way to how human societies work.
  • "Queen" ants are the head of ant colonies, they lay thousands of eggs. Male ants called "drones" have one role which is to mate with the queen. Non-reproducing female ants form castes of "workers" or "soldiers" who find food, care for the queen and offspring, build the nest, and defend the colony or attack others.
  • Foraging worker ants can travel up to 200 metres (700 ft) from their nest and find their way back to the colony by following scent trails left by others.
  • Only female queen ants and male drones, have wings. Queen ants shed there wings after mating with a male, and seek a suitable place to begin a colony.
  • Queen ants can live up to 30 years, the longest of any insect. Workers live for 1 to 3 years, while male drones usually only survive a few weeks.
  • More than 20,000 known ant species occur around the world, yet only 12,500 have so far been classified.
  • Ants can lift and carry many many times their own weight. In fact the tiny leafcutter ant (pictured) can lift and carry in its jaws something 50 times its own body weight of about 500mg.
  • Ants can bite or sting, bullet ants, have the most painful sting of any insect, its not fatal to humans though like the sting of the Australian jack jumper ant.
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