Believe it or not…
There are more than 12,000 known species of ants in the world. Ants exist on every continent except Antarctica. A single acre of Amazon rainforest may contain 3.5 million ants.
The total mass of all the ants on earth is roughly equal to the mass of all the humans on earth. How is this possible? Scientists estimate there are at least 1.5 million ants on the planet for every human being.
An ant is able to lifts more than 20 times its own body weight. If we were able to do this, we would be able to carry cars!
An ant has an average lifespan of 45 – 60 days.Army ant colonies can have around 700,000 members.The ant has the largest brain out of all the insects. It is said that the processing power in an ant’s brain and a Macintosh II computer might be similar.
In many colonies male ants have only one role, mating with the queen. After they have performed this function, they may die.
Ants have two stomachs. One stomach is used to store food for itself. The second stomach is used to store food that is to be shared with other ants.
Quite a few ant species will take captives from other ant species, forcing them to do chores for their own colony. Some honeypot ants will even enslave ants of the same species, taking individuals from foreign colonies to perform their work.
It is estimated that ants evolved about 130 million years ago. They lived alongside dinosaurs!
Some ants herd caterpillars, like cows: they take them out to graze in the morning, then round them up and bring them back home at night. In return for getting a nutritious liquid meal the ants provide protection for their insect cattle.
Ants follow scent trails laid by scout ants to gather food.
The legs of the ant are very strong so they can run very quickly. If a man could run as fast for his size as an ant can, he could run as fast as a racehorse.
Ants jaws open and close sideways like a pair of scissors.
An ant has two eyes. Each eye is made up of lots of smaller eyes.
Ants are very clean insects. Some worker ants are given the job of taking the trash out of the mound and putting it outside into a specified trash pile.
Each colony of ants has its own smell. This makes it very easy for ants to tell if there are any intruders in the area.
Some queen ants can have millions of babies.
When ants fight, it is usually to the death.
Ants NEVER sleep!
Fire ants link together to form a living, unsinkable raft during floods.
For more than 3,000 years, Carpenter Ants have been used to close wounds in India, Asia and South America.
If you draw a line with chalk around some ants, they won’t cross it. Calcium Carbonate in chalk will puncture their skin and kill them with dehydration.
Ants conduct war in ways similar to humans, even using advanced strategies like reconnaissance and sending expendable ants to the front line as to preserve the stronger ones.