ant fact archive

Fire ants¹¹⁵ have sex in the air, often hundreds of meters above ground.¹¹⁶ Males die soon after, having served their sole purpose in life.¹¹⁷

Asian weaver ants¹¹² can carry 100 times their body weight while walking upside down on the ceiling.^{113, 114}

Over her lifetime, an African driver ant queen¹⁰⁹ produces about 250 million eggs.^110,111

Ant colonies alternate between periods of growth¹⁰⁵ and reproduction,¹⁰⁶ like perennial flowers.^{107, 108}

Black garden ant queens¹⁰² attract each other. After mating, they found shared colonies, sleeping side by side in the same chamber.^{103, 104}

Pheromones are a language of taste and smell, and the primary mode of communication for ants. These invisible signals carry distinct messages, from signaling danger to marking trails.^{100, 101}

Ants⁹⁷ invented agriculture. They have been cultivating mushrooms in their underground gardens for 66 million years.^{98, 99}

Similar to a sourdough starter, a young leafcutter ant queen⁹⁵ carries a piece of her mother’s fungus garden in her mouth when she leaves home. She spits it into a cave to inoculate her new nest.⁹⁶

Leafcutter ants⁹³ produce their own fertilizer.⁹⁴

Chosen honeypot ants⁹⁰ get fed until their bellies swell into translucent globes. They serve as living food storage for their sisters.^{91, 92}

During combat, exploding ants⁸⁷ burst into a toxic bright yellow glue, sacrificing themselves as a last line of defense.^{88, 89}

A colony of the world’s smallest ant could live inside the skull of the world’s largest ant.^{85, 86}

When separated from their colony, army ants⁸³ are so focused on following each other that they trap themselves in a circular mill. They run towards a non-existent goal until they die.⁸⁴

Digging as deep as seven meters into the ground, leafcutter ants⁷⁹ build enormous cave systems with thousands of rooms.⁸⁰ The central chamber can be large enough for a human to sit in.^{81, 82}

The ant Mycocepurus smithii can perform virgin births. Most colonies are populated entirely by female clones, with no males in sight.⁷⁷ Once a queen gives up sex, the switch is irreversible: none of her descendants will ever mate.⁷⁸

Driver ants⁷⁴ cover slugs in soil to soak up their protective slime. Once dry, the slug gets sliced up and eaten.^{75, 76}

Asian weaver ants⁷¹ build living chains by holding each other by the waist,⁷² stretching across tree branches to close gaps between trails.⁷³

A queen ant only ever sees the sun once in her life, during her nuptial flight.⁶⁸ Once mated, she sheds her wings and spends the rest of her days underground, laying eggs.^69,70

A Leafcutter ant’s jaw contains metal, making it exceptionally strong.⁶⁵ The ant is born soft and flexible, her body hardening with age.^{66, 67}

No male ant ever had a father or a son.^{63, 64}

Groups of ants have a shared personality.⁶⁰ An entire colony can be fearful of new environments, prudent and risk-averse. These shy colonies also tend to be less competitive.^{61, 62}

Florida wood ants⁵⁷ are cunning warriors, their nests littered with the severed skulls of much larger and more aggressive trap-jaw ants.⁵⁸ They mimic the trap-jaw scent to disguise themselves.⁵⁹

Leaf-cutting ants⁵⁴ construct ventilation shafts for their nests. The edible mold they cultivate underground thrives in muggy conditions,⁵⁵ but the ants need a breath of fresh air every once in a while.⁵⁶

Ghost ants⁵² have a slit-shaped, hairless anal opening.⁵³

The fossil record shows that ants evolved around 150 million years ago. Now trapped in amber, they once shared the forest floor with dinosaurs such as Brachiosaurus and Stegosaurus.⁵¹

Dracula ants⁴⁹ are predators but are born completely blind. Their foreheads are smooth and lack any eye structures​.⁵⁰

Ant sisters are more closely related than human sisters, sharing 75% of their genes on average.^47,48

Caterpillars often grow up surrounded by ants. They employ chemical and acoustic signals to manipulate their entourage into liking and protecting them.⁴⁴ A sweet secretion is used to reward the ants for their services.^45,46

Wood ants⁴¹ are among the only animals to create drug cocktails. By combining the formic acid produced by their own bodies with tree resin, they create a powerful antimicrobial agent to safeguard the colony from disease.^42,43

Male ants are often outlived by their sperm, dying just days after mating.³⁸ The queen stores their ejaculate in a pouch-like organ and uses it to fertilize eggs for a decade or more.^39,40

The oldest ant on record is a Black Garden Ant queen³⁵ who died after 28 years and nine months in captivity.³⁶ Her daughters had a typical lifespan of just one to two years.³⁷

Fungus-growing Ants³³ cooperate with other colonies by exchanging the edible molds grown in their underground gardens. Resilient strains get passed around, even across species lines, helping these farmers adapt to environmental changes.³⁴

Colonies of Fire Ants³⁰ survive floods by linking their bodies together to form living rafts, similar to the weaving of a waterproof fabric. This traps air bubbles underneath.³¹ The ants can sail for months at a time as they migrate to a new home.³²

As ants age, they venture further into the world.²⁷ They start as nurses, caring for the queen and her brood, then progress to nest maintenance. Only in the final stages of their lives do they take on the dangerous task of leaving the nest to forage.^28,29

Just over one millimeter in size, a Ghost Ant²⁵ is easily overlooked. Her pale legs and abdomen often blend into the background, making the head and thorax look like hovering specks, unrecognizable as an ant.²⁶

When Fire Ants²¹ encounter essential balm, they collect nearby soil particles and pave over the sticky substance.^22,23 They employ the same strategy to forage in areas treated with insecticides.²⁴

When an ant leaves home, she carries the distinct colony smell on her body for a long time.¹⁹ If this scent gets masked or washed off, however, her nest mates will attack her aggressively, no longer recognizing their sister.²⁰

Many ant species forage for seeds, which in turn affects the abundance and spread of plants.¹⁷ When a forest is cleared, ant communities get displaced, disrupting the ecosystem and changing the makeup of the undergrowth for decades.¹⁸

Dracula Ants¹⁴ practice non-destructive cannibalism. Using sharp, elongated jaws, they puncture the skin of their own larvae and feed on their blood without killing them.^15,16

Carpenter Ants¹¹ die ten times quicker when isolated from their peers. They wander around and continue to gather food, likely to share it with their nest mates later, but do not digest it themselves.¹² They starve to death with a full belly.¹³

In Malaysia, some ants⁸ live in the hollow internodes of giant bamboo stems. When their nest gets flooded by rain, they respond by drinking the water and excreting it on the outside of the plant.⁹ This strategy is known as communal peeing.¹⁰

Desert Ants⁴ can navigate precisely using the sun.⁵ When it is obscured, they use the pattern of polarized light across the blue sky as a compass.⁶ They have an extra set of eyes for this.⁷

Fire Ants¹ take around 250 naps per day, each lasting just over one minute. Some choose to sleep upside down on the ceiling. During deep sleep phases, they exhibit rapid antennal movement.^2,3