Ant Facts

There are many interesting facts about ants, it could even be called a fact that this neat little creature, the ant, has held many peoples interest since childhood.

Interesting Ant Fact Numero Uno

Ants evolved from a creature like the wasp of today some 110 to 130 million years ago. If you look at an ants body structure, you can see how it resembles that of the wasp.

Ant Fact Number 2

To date there has been more than 12,000 species of ants classified.
Yes, that is quite a wide variety of ants!

Another Ant Fact

Ants are social insects, meaning they live and work with other ants. They are a member of the Family Formicidae along with bees and wasps(as to be expected due to there evolution from early wasps as stated earlier.)

Ant Fact Four Ant Division of Labor

Some of what defines ants as social insects are that they live together with many other ants in what is refered to as an ant colony. In this living together they have developed a division of labor where different ants are tasked with doing different things, like in our own human societies. Some of the roles different ants perform are the gathering of food for the colony, some ants are solely responsible for the reproduction of the ant species, ants live in a wide variety of homes or nest and some types of ants are simply nomadic, moving from place to place. For ants living in nests or mounds, there are worker ants whose job it is to construct and perform the upkeep for the colonies home.

Similar to the food collector ants, there are even ant gardeners!
The leafcutter ant only eats a specific type of fungus that is grown in their nests and there are various members of the leafcutter ant species whose job it is to cut and collect leaves, which are then given to another group of leafcutter ants which chew the leaves, the chewed leaves are then given to another group of leaf cutter ants whose job it is to tend to the fungi gardens and make sure the fungi is receiving the right type of leaves and nutrients it needs to grow. That is what I would call an interesting ant fact!

Fifth Ant Fact

Ants eat a wide variety of things, not just fungi, as to be expected due to the wide variety in types of ants that exist. More info on Just what do ants eat? can be found here.

Sixth Ant Fact

Ants may eat a wide variety of foods, but the aardvarks, or anteater is not the only creature that eats ants, there are in fact many different humans that eat many different types of ants.

Ants and their larvae, or eggs, can be found as an ingredient in dishes every from India, Burma, and Thailand, to Mexico and Columbia.

Interesting types of Ants

Fire Ants
Flying Ants
Black Ants
Leafcutter Ants