29 Ant Facts For Kids

1. Ant is the common name for a large group of eusocial insects in the Formicidae family.
2. Ant species are found worldwide, apart from Antarctica and a few very remote islands.
3. Scientists have identified more than 13,800 species of ants out of an estimated 22,000 living ant species.
4. Scientists have found fossil evidence that shows ants appeared as far back as ~100 million years ago (mid-Cretaceous).
5. Ants have a head, eyes, mandibles, antenna, a thorax, legs, and an abdomen.
6. Most ant species are either black or red, but some species can be green or even have a metallic appearance.
7. Ants are omnivores and will eat virtually anything they find or can capture.
8. Ants are one of the most social groups of living animals on the planet.
9. Ants communicate with each other using pheromones, vibrations, sound, and touch.
10. Ants live in colonies that can a few members or millions of members.
11. Ant colonies are classified as superorganisms due to the fact they work together with a unified goal of supporting the colony.
12. An ant colony can live in an ant hill underground or in structures, like fire ants or carpenter ants.
13. Some ant species don’t have a permanent nest and continuously move around, like army ants or driver ants.
14. Ant colonies can live peaceful next to each other, but events can happen to cause them to fight. This is usually caused by a competition of found and will result in an ant colony war. Both colonies will fight and lose a lot of members, with one usually being completed destroyed.
15. Ant colonies are well known for their castes (groups), which are reproductive females, reproductive males, and non-reproductive females.
16. The queen ant is a reproductive female and the one who produces eggs to grow and maintain the colony.
17. The drone ant is a reproductive male who sole purpose is to mate with new queens before they leave the colony.
18. The worker ant is a non-reproductive female who perform most of the work (digging, foraging, and defending) in the colony. The worker ant can come in many different sizes and the size determines which role they play in the colony.
19. It is estimated there are at least 20 quadrillion ants in the world, that is a lot of ants, there are 15 zeroes in quadrillion.
20. In any given area where ants are found, they tend to make up 15 to 25% of the total terrestrial animal biomass of that area.
21. One of the biggest living species of ants is the bullet ant (Paraponera clavate) with a length between 0.7 and 1.2 inches.
22. One of the biggest species of ants to ever walk our planet was the Titanomyrma gigantea with a queen who reach a length of 2.4 inches.
23. One of the smallest species of ants is the thief ant (Solenopsis molesta) with a maximum length of only 0.118 inches.
24. One of the longest living species of ants is the western harvester ant (Pogonomyrmex occidentalis) who’s queen can live up to 40 years.
25. One of the most aggressive ant species in the world is the bulldog ant (Myrmecia gulosa) found in Australia.
26. One of the most painful ant species is the fire ant (Solenopsis) who’s venom can be very painful and cause an allergic reaction.
27. One of the most nuisance ant species in the world is the carpenter ant (Formica ligniperda) which can damage the wood in a building.
28. Many people enjoy ant keeping as a hobby and will keep one or more colonies in an ant farm or formicarium.
29. The study of ants in entomology is myrmecology and a person who studies ants is known as a myrmecologist.

Ant Pictures

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the below images will be helpful for your research on ants. Below are nine various pictures of ants. These pictures should help you better understand ants, one of the hardest working insects on the planet.

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