Ants

Ant Facts

Kingdom: Animalia

Subkingdom: Bilateria

Phylum: Arthropoda

Subphylum: Uniramia

Class: Insecta

Subclass: Neoptera

Order: Hymenoptera (ants, bees, and wasps)

Suborder: Apocrita

Superfamily: Formicoidea

Family: Formicidae

Subfamilies: (see below)

Geographical location: Worldwide

Habitat: All continents, but not at high altitudes and latitudes; most common in tropical and subtropical regions

Gestational period: Reproduction occurs during the summer

Life span: Queen ants live an average of three years, but some have lived as many as fifteen years; worker ants live an average of six months

Special anatomy: Complex eyes; many species have poison sacs or stingers at the end of the metasoma

Ants are insects and, as such, have three body parts: head, thorax, and abdomen. Ants have six legs, which are covered with tiny hairs. These hairs are used to clean its two antennae. The antennae are used for touching and smelling. Ants’ poorly developed eyes make these sensory organs all the more important. Myrmecologists contend that ants have a very elaborate communication system. For example, when ants locate food, they create a scent path with a chemical substance from the food to the nest, allowing other ants to travel from the nest and locate the food. Ants also touch each other’s antennae to communicate.

Ants live in colonies. Each colony consists of a queen, workers, soldiers, and male ants. Ants build many different types of homes. Many ants build simple mounds of dirt or sand. Other ants use small sticks mixed with dirt and sand, which makes a stronger mound that offers protection from rain. Ant mounds consist of many chambers connected by tunnels. Different chambers are used for nurseries, food storage, and resting places for the worker ants.

Ants are found in almost all terrestrial habitats, with the exception of high altitudes and latitudes. They are not found in some of the colder climates on Earth, such as Antarctica, Iceland, and Greenland. On Earth, there is an estimated 2.5 million ants per human. This places their number on the planet at 20 quadrillion. This is greater than the total number of stars believed to exist in the Milky Way galaxy. Most ant species live in the soil, although some ants live in wood, like termites. Army ants do not make a home at all but travel in large groups searching for food.

Physical Characteristics of Ants

Ant coloration can be black, earth-tone reds, pale tans, and basic browns. Ant larvae are white and grublike. They have no legs and do not move about much on their own. Their large, dark stomachs can generally be seen through their cuticles. Ant pupae look like white adult ants, with their legs and antennae pressed close to their bodies. In some species, larvae spin silk, and the pupal stage is inside a cocoon. Newly emerged adult ants are often paler than older ones.

Male ants can generally be distinguished from worker ant, who are all females, by the larger size of their body, thorax, and abdomen.

Ants do not have lungs. Oxygen enters through tiny holes all over the body called spiracles, and carbon dioxide leaves through the same holes. Ants can close their spiracles to protect themselves from water and survive for up to twenty-four hours without taking in additional oxygen. There are no blood vessels. The heart is a long tube that pumps colorless blood from the anterior to the posterior, then back up to the head again. Ants are very strong compared to other species. For example, an ant can lift up to fifty times their body weight. A human would have to lift a car to do similar. Ants are also very fast and can traverse 100 times their body length in a second. This places their speed at approximately 450 miles per hour.

The Life Cycle of Ants

Ants go through four stages of metamorphosis—egg, larva, pupa, and adult—which can take from six weeks to six months to complete. Eggs are almost microscopic in size. After weeks of feeding and molting, larvae enter the pupal stage. Pupae resemble adult ants but do not move around or feed. They are often encased in a silky cocoon, which is protected fiercely by the soldier ants. Ant pupae secrete a nutritious, milk-like fluid containing essential amino acids, carbohydrates, and vitamins that aid the colony's growth and survival rates. Adults require several days to attain complete maturity after emergence from the pupal stage.

Male ants only serve one purpose, which is to mate with future queen ants. The queen grows to adulthood and mates then spends the rest of her life laying eggs. A variety of reptiles, amphibians, spiders, and other insects prey on ants. Bats and birds kill and eat the flying males and females.

Some ant species are considered pests because they inhabit human territory or consume resources that humans need. Many species of ants have poison sacs or stingers at the end of the metasoma for defense against predators. Worldwide, however, ants are one of the most important predators of small invertebrates, including other insects. Ants are important dispersers of the seeds that they harvest. Ants turn over and aerate the soil as much as or more than earthworms.

There are more than 15,000 known ant species organized into more than 300 genres and twenty-one subfamilies, including Myrmeciinae, Ponerinae, Dorylinae (army ants), Leptanillinae, Myrmeciinae, Pseudomyrmecinae, Dolichoderinae, and Formicinae. New ant species continue to be discovered in the twenty-first century. A blue ant (Paraparatrechina neela) was discovered in India in 2022, and a slender, white ant was found in Australia in 2024, which scientists named Leptanilla Voldemort, a reference to the evil wizard Lord Voldemort of the Harry Potter series.

Principal Terms

Caste: social division of an ant colony, including workers, soldiers, queens, and males

Drone: a fertile male ant

Myrmecology: the study of ants

Soldiers: large workers who defend the colony and often raid other colonies

Workers: sterile, wingless female worker ants

Bibliography

"Ants, Facts and Information." National Geographic, www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/facts/ants. Accessed 6 July 2023.

Bolton, Barry. Identification Guide to the Ant Genera of the World. Harvard University Press, 2004.

Gauld, Ian, and Barry Bolton, eds. The Hymenoptera. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.

Gordon, Deborah. Ants at Work: How an Insect Society Is Organized. New York: Free Press, 1999.

Hölldobler, Bert, and E. O. Wilson. The Ants. Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1990.

Katz, Leslie. "Dazzling New Blue Ant Discovered In Remote Indian Forest." Forbes, 4 June 2024, www.forbes.com/sites/lesliekatz/2024/06/04/dazzling-new-species-of-blue-ant-found-in-remote-indian-forest. Accessed 20 Sept. 2024.

Quinlan, J., and I. D. Gauld. Symphyta (Except Tenthredinidae) Hymenoptera. 2nd ed., Royal Entomological Society, 2023.

Ritchie, Phillips. "Ant-Man is only Tapping Into a Portion of the Real Superpowers of Ants." University of Sydney, 2 Mar. 2023, www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2023/03/02/ant-man-only-tapping-into-portion-of-real-ant-superpowers.html. Accessed 6 July 2023.

Sullivan, Will. "Scientists Just Discovered That Ants Make Milk." Smithsonian Magazine, 5 Dec. 2022, www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/scientists-discover-that-ants-make-a-milk-like-substance-180981237. Accessed 20 Sept. 2024.

Taber, Stephen. Fire Ants. Texas A&M University Press, 2000.

The World of the Harvester Ants. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1998.