1. Ants evolved from wasp-like creatures around 110-130 million years ago. They lived in the time of the dinosaurs, but were not extinct, unlike them.
2. Ant colonies may include from several to several million individuals.
3. The Earth is inhabited by over 12,000 different species of ants. The length of the smallest of them is only 0.07 centimeters, and the largest – up to 4 cm.
4. Many people consider termites to be ants, although they are not even related. The closest relatives of termites are cockroaches.
5. Little ants make up 15-20% of the total animal biomass on Earth, more than the weight of vertebrate animals.
6. Scientists believe that there are about 10 quadrillions of ants in the world today.
There are several million of these insects per person.
7. Working ants live up to 3 years, while the queen ant can rule up to 30 years.
8. These insects may take representatives of other ant species captive, forcing them to work for the benefit of their colony.
9. The world’s largest super ant colony consists of over a billion individuals and covers more than 5,954 square kilometers.
10. The bite of Paraponera clavata ants is excruciatingly painful and can last all day long. These insects are often referred to as “bullet ant” because when they attack it it appears that someone has shot you.
11. Scientists believe that ants are capable of carrying objects 5,000 times heavier than themselves. By comparison, snails can only carry ten times their own weight.
12. Ants can reach speeds of up to 7.62 centimeters per second. For a person, the comparable speed is almost 55 kilometers per hour.
13. Ants are the smartest insects. Their brain, despite its small size, consists of 250,000 cells.
14. Ants hear with their feet and knees – feeling the vibrations of the earth.
15. Each ant colony has its own smell.
16. The queen of ants is only involved in laying eggs. Caring for them is the responsibility of the worker ants.
17. Some ants do not build anthills, but lead a nomadic lifestyle. When it’s time to move on, they collect the larvae, food, eggs, and the queen and then set off on a journey.
18. The bite of the Harpegnathos venator “black bulldog” ant can be fatal to humans. Fortunately, in this case, an antidote has been created.
19. Ants are able to learn interactively – that is, they can learn from another individual’s example rather than their own. Apart from them, only mammals have this ability.
20. Some species of ants may use the Earth’s magnetic field as a reference, as do some sharks.
21. Ants are able to create “living bridges” from their bodies to cross water or plant barriers.
22. The Mexican dish “Eskamoles” includes eggs from several species of ants.
23. Only humans and ants have livestock. Of course ants are predators, but they still breed their pets. The role of such cattle is used by the aphid. Ants graze the aphid, care for it, protect it from other insects and even milk it. Thus, the aphid secretes a special fluid that the ants willingly use in their nutrition. And, of course, aphids serve as food for them. In general, ants are the only living things except humans who breed animals.
24. Working ants, they are constantly involved in “useful” things, they sleep very little – less than five hours a day. Utilizing sleep time not immediately, extending it into dozens of small periods of about a minute. So during the day, a working ant can doze up to 250 times Thanks to this daily routine, more than 80% of the anthill population is always conscious, which helps the ant colony to be always ready for surprises.
25. There are nomadic ants in Africa and America, they do not have their own apartment, they are traveling all the time and they kill everything that comes their way, even lions run away from them.
26. Ants live all over the world with the exception of Iceland, Greenland and Antarctica.
27. Ants have clear responsibilities: builders, soldiers, gatherers (those who are looking for food). If an ant that is looking for food returns several times with no prey or no information about where the food is, it is lost.
28. There are some species of spiders that look like ants like two drops of water, except that ants have 6 legs and spiders have 8. As a rule, they disguise themselves under ants, using this similarity to protect against birds and other insects. They do this because ants are not the subject of gastronomic passion for every animal species (except maybe anteaters). However, some such spiders use this similarity to hunt the ants themselves. They pull two paws, go into the anthill, catch and kill the ant, then throw it out of the anthill like a dead companion, and eat it themselves.
29. Most of the ants are working class and all working ants are female and have an underdeveloped reproductive system.
30. Not all ants are as diligent as is commonly believed. Observations showed that 80% of ants are engaged in socially useful work – they clean the apartment, collect food; but the rest are slackers. Even after scientists removed some of the “working” ants, the situation did not change. The activity of the ants taken was taken over by the ants that did nothing. However, some were still idle. It is possible to explain this strange indifferent behavior, it may be old age or pathological laziness.
